Full text of "Women in the bookbinding trade"

See other formats

RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION PUBLICATIONS

THE PITTSBURGH SURVEY. Findings in six volumes, edited
by Paul U. Kellogg. 8vo. Fully illustrated. Maps, charts,
and tables. Price per set, $9 net; per volume, $1.50 net.

WOMEN AND THE TRADES. By Elizabeth Beardsley Butler. 2d ed.
Postpaid, $1.72.

WORK-ACCIDENTS AND THE LAW. By Crystal Eastman. Post-
paid, $1.72.

THE STEEL WORKERS. By John A. Fitch, New York Dept. of

Labor. Postpaid, $1.73.
HOMESTEAD: THE HOUSEHOLDS OF A MILL TOWN. By Margaret

F. Byington. Postpaid, $1.70.
THE PITTSBURGH DISTRICT. Symposium by John R. Commons,

Robert A. Woods, Florence Kelley, Charles Mulford Robinson

and others. (In preparation.)

PITTSBURGH: THE GIST OF THE SURVEY. By Paul U. Kellogg.
(In preparation.)

CORRECTION AND PREVENTION. Four volumes prepared
for the Eighth International Prison Congress. Edited by
Charles Richmond Henderson, Ph.D. 8vo. Price per set, ex-
press prepaid, $10; per volume, $2.50 net.

PRISON REFORM. By Chas. R. Henderson, F. H. Wines and Others.
And CRIMINAL LAW IN THE UNITED STATES. By Eugene Smith.
Illus. 320 pages. Postpaid, $2.67.

PENAL AND REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS. By Sixteen Leading
Authorities. Illus. 346 pages. Postpaid, $2.70.

PREVENTIVE AGENCIES AND METHODS. By Charles Richmond
Henderson, Ph.D. 440 pages. Postpaid, $2.68.

PREVENTIVE TREATMENT OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN. By Hastings
H. Hart, LL.D. With special papers by leading authorities.
Illus. 420 pages. Postpaid, $2.70.

JUVENILE COURT LAWS in the United States: Summarized.
Edited by Hastings H. Hart, LL.D. 8vo. 160 pages. Post-
paid, $1.60.

HOUSING REFORM. A Handbook for Use in American Cities.
By Lawrence Veiller. i2mo. 220 pages. 5 schedules. 2d ed.
Postpaid, $1.25.

A MODEL TENEMENT HOUSE LAW. Giving such a law
section by section, with comment. By Lawrence Veiller. 130
pages. Postpaid, $1.25.

WORKINGMEN'S INSURANCE IN EUROPE. By Lee K.
Frankel and Miles M. Dawson, with the co-operation of Louis
I. Dublin. 8vo. 450 pages. 145 tables. Bibliography. 2d ed.
Postpaid, $2.70.

RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION PUBLICATIONS

WIDER USE OF THE SCHOOL PLANT. By Clarence Arthur
Perry. Illus. 12010. 404 pages. 2d ed. Postpaid, $1.25.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS. By M. Louise Greene, M.Pd.,
Ph.D. Illus. I2mo. 380 pages. 2d ed. Postpaid, $1.25.

LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS. A Study of Retardation and
Elimination. By Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 8vo. 252 pages.
3rd ed. Postpaid, $1.50.

MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. By Luther Halsey
Gulick, M.D., and Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. Illus. 8vo. 226
pages. Fourth edition, completely revised. Postpaid, $1.50.

THE STANDARD OF LIVING Among Workingmen's Families
in New York City. By Robert Coit Chapin, Ph.D. 8vo. 388
pages. 131 tables. Postpaid, $2.00.

CIVIC BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR GREATER NEW YORK.
Edited by James Bronson Reynolds, for the New York Research
Council. 8vo. 312 pages. Postpaid, $1.50.

ONE THOUSAND HOMELESS MEN. By Alice Willard Solen-
berger. i2mo. 398 pages. 50 tables. Postpaid, $1.25.

THE ALMSHOUSE. Construction and Management. By Alex-
ander Johnson. Illus. Plans and Specimen Records. I2mo. 274
pages. Postpaid, $1.25.

HANDBOOK OF SETTLEMENTS. Edited by Robert A. Woods
and Albert J. Kennedy. 8vo. 340 pages. Cloth, postpaid,
$1.50. Paper, postpaid, $0.75.

SALESWOMEN IN MERCANTILE STORES. Baltimore, 1909.
By Elizabeth Beardsley Butler. Illus. I2mo. 234 pages.
Cloth, postpaid, $1.08. Paper, postpaid, $0.75.

FATIGUE AND EFFICIENCY. By Josephine Goldmark. In-
troduction by Frederic S. Lee, Ph.D. Appendix containing
comparative schedules of hours and extracts from laws regu-
lating women's labor. 8vo. 358 pages. 3rd ed. Postpaid, $2.00.

THE DELINQUENT CHILD AND THE HOME. By Sophon-

isba P. Breckinridge and Edith Abbott. 8vo. 360 pages.

Postpaid, $2.00.
WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE. By Mary Van

Kleeck. Illus. i2mo. 300 pages. Postpaid, $1.50.
CO-OPERATION IN NEW ENGLAND: Urban and Rural. By

James Ford, Ph.D. i2mo. 260 pages. Postpaid, $1.50.

SURVEY ASSOCIATES, Inc.

Formerly Charities Fabrication Committee
PUBLISHERS FOR THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION

105 EAST 226. STREET, NEW YORK

RUSSELLSAGE
FOUNDATION

WOMEN IN THE
BOOKBINDING TRADE

MARY VAN KLEECK
i' »

SECRETARY COMMITTEE ON WOMEN S WORK
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION

INTRODUCTION
BY HENRY R. SEAGER

PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

N EW YORK
SURVEY ASSC CM A T E,S ,
MGMXSH..

PRESS OF WM. F. FELL CO.
PHILADELPHIA

INTRODUCTION

THE time has gone by when any large
number of intelligent persons attempts to
justify present conditions by urging that
they are better than those of the past, or that,
if we will only be patient, the "survival of the
fittest," and the "elimination of the unfit," that
are believed to be in progress, will make those of
the future still better. However great our faith
in the beneficence of the evolutionary process,
we have learned that it can be both hastened in
its operation and made more certain in its results
by deliberate and purposeful human action.
Through public sanitation and labor legislation
the plane on which the struggle for existence is
carried on may be raised to the advantage of all
concerned. On the other hand, isolation of the
insane, the feeble-minded, and other defectives
may eliminate in one generation "unfit" lines of
heredity which might otherwise be perpetuated
indefinitely.

But to accomplish the task of improving social
and industrial conditions by deliberate and pur-
poseful action, we must first have knowledge of
the conditions to be improved. This was the
thought which caused editors of Charities and the

259923

INTRODUCTION

Commons to organize and carry out and the Russell
Sage Foundation to supply the funds for the epoch-
making Pittsburgh Survey. It was the same
thought which led the Foundation later to es-
tablish the Committee on Women's Work, with
Miss Mary Van Kleeck as secretary. The first
fruit of the patient and careful investigations
which are being made by that Committee is the
present volume.

There are several reasons why it is advantageous
to study women in industry as though they con-
stituted a distinct class and their problem was a
distinct problem. In the first place, the proportion
of women who enter gainful employments is con-
stantly growing. This gives rise to special ques-
tions as to the effect of the increasing employment
of girls and women on marriage and birth rates,
the reaction of the employment of married women
on the conditions of home life and particularly
on the rearing of children, and the influence of
the competition of women workers on the wages
of men. We do not have similar problems for
men because their gainful employment has long
been an established fact to which our whole social
life has become adjusted.

In the second place, there can be no doubt
that the condition of women wage-earners is in
many respects even less satisfactory than that
of men. The range of skilled occupations open
to them is smaller. Those who enter gainful
employments as girls of from fourteen to eighteen,

INTRODUCTION

may marry before they reach the age of twenty-
five. With this possibility before them they have
less incentive than boys to learn trades. The
consequence of these two facts, re-enforced by the
inferior strength of women, is that they are able
to command wages which average only about
one-half those that are paid to men. This means
for most girls and women who have to be self-
supporting a heart-breaking and health-destroying
struggle. Underpay and its correlative overwork
are the common lot. The easy escape from these
hard conditions which prostitution appears to offer
in a large city further differentiates her problem
from' that of her working brothers.

Finally, and as a consequence of these reasons,
we have the putting forward of a protective pro-
gram for women wage-earners which would seem
to most people unnecessary, or at best premature,
if proposed for men. Now that the Supreme
Court of the United States has placed the stamp
of its approval on this procedure by declaring
that woman's "physical nature and the evil effects
of overwork upon her and her future children
justify legislation to protect her from the greed
as well as the passion of men," the legislative
treatment of women workers is likely for many
years to come to be differentiated from that applied
to men. The Russell Sage Foundation thus acted
wisely when it decided to create a special depart-
ment on Women's Work. By so doing it has
prepared itself to attack one of the worst phases of

vii

INTRODUCTION

the labor problem — the phase, at the same time, in
connection with which efforts toward a solution
are most certain to command public, legislative,
and judicial support.

The bookbinding trade was chosen first for
study because it is one of the most important
trades for women in New York City, and also in
many respects a typical one. As Miss Van Kleeck
explains, it affords employment to every grade
of woman worker from the skilled craftsman who
does artistic binding by hand to the machine
operator, the hand folder, the wrapper, and the
errand girl. The competition in it between out-
going hand processes and incoming machine proc-
esses is incessant. In some branches work is
regular; in others it is highly irregular, overtime
and free days occurring in the same week. Finally,
there is a union in the trade to which some of the
women employes belong; while most of the women
are unorganized and little impressed by the ad-
vantages of organization. Bookbinding in New
York City thus presents in miniature most of the
important problems which confront women wage-
earners.

The present report is the first of a series of
studies which will serve to place before the people
of the United States authoritative information in
regard to the conditions under which women wage-
earners carry on their work and the wages which
they receive. Volumes treating of the Makers of

viii

INTRODUCTION

Artificial Flowers and of Women and Girls in the
Public Evening Schools of New York City are
nearly ready. As these are published readers will
be able to get a comparative view of conditions
in different trades, the lack of which inevitably
weakens the force of the conclusions that may be
drawn from the study of any single trade.

Knowledge of existing conditions is the necessary
preliminary to a reform of those conditions; but
it is the reform and not the knowledge that must
ever be the chief concern of an organization like
the Russell Sage Foundation. As the information
contained in the Pittsburgh Survey gave a tremen-
dous impetus to movements for civic and industrial
betterment not only in that city but in the whole
state of Pennsylvania, so the facts presented in
this volume about women employed in book-
binderies should afford a basis for effective agita-
tion for the reforms most urgently called for.
Of these, none seem to stand out more clearly
than an effective prohibition on the employment
of women at night and the regulation of the em-
ployment of girls from fourteen to eighteen so
that they will be enabled to learn the trade in
which they are engaged and not be mere drifters,
regular in nothing except in frequent changes
from employer to employer and prolonged periods
of unemployment, and certain of nothing except
that their wages will never be sufficient to enable
them to be adequately self-supporting.

COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S WORK OF THE
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION

HENRY R. SEAGER, Chairman
Miss LILIAN BRANDT
SAMUEL McCuNE LINDSAY
MRS. HENRY R. SEAGER
ANTONIO STELLA, M.D.
Miss ELLEN J. STONE
LAWRENCE VEILLER
MRS. LAWRENCE VEILLER

XII

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION. By Henry R. Seager v

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv

LIST OF TABLES . xvii

I. Introductory i

1 1 . The Bookbinding Trade 13

III. Women's Work in the Binderies ... 38

IV. Wages and Home Conditions .... 72

. V. Irregularity of Employment . . . . 101

VI. Overtime and the Factory Laws . . .133

VII. Collective Bargaining in the Bindery Trade 169

VIII. Teaching Girls the Trade 194

IX. Summary and Outlook 219

APPENDICES

A. Outline of Investigation 239

B. Supplementary Statistics 249

C. Sixty-Hour Restriction. Held to be Con-

stitutional 256

INDEX 261

Xlll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Gold Leaf Layers , -5

A Stamper I7^

Drop-roll Folding Machine ,84

Automatic Folding Machine . . . . ] ,84

Hand Folders ,9g

The Point Folding Machine . . ,8

XVI

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

1 . Binderies in Manhattan, by nature of products,

1910 26

2. Number of persons engaged in bookbinding in

the United States, by decades. 1850-1900 . 29

3. Distribution of women bookbinders. United

States, 1900 31

4. Women employed in bookbinding in Man-

hattan in 1910, by principal product of
binderies and number of women employed 33

5. Nativity and nativity of parents of women

employed in bookbinding, New York City 35

6. Weekly wages of women employed in book-

binding by years of employment in the
trade 75

7. Weekly earnings of women employed in

bookbinding during first week of employ-
ment in bookbinding 76

8. Binderies employing women as learners by

weekly wages of learners, and the minimum
age at which they are employed ... 78

9. Comparative weekly earnings of men and

women employed in bookbinding and of
women in all manufacturing industries.
New York state, 1905 79

10. Approximate yearly income of women em-

ployed in bookbinding, by ages ... 85

1 1 . Family status of women employed in book-

binding 87

xvii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Photographs by Lewis W. Hine

FACING
PAGE

Wire-stitching Frontispiece

Pasting Machine 14

Edge Gilders 14

Sewing Books by Hand 24

Sewing Books by Machine 24

Case Makers 42

Gathering and Wire-stitching Machine ... 42

Gathering by Hand 54

Gathering Machine 54

Press and Plow Machine 68

Trimming Magazines 68

Folding by Hand 82

Folding and Gathering 82

Covering Magazines by Machine .... 92

Gathering Machine 92

Box Girls 108

Men Case-making and Girls Labeling . . .108

Collating 122

Gathering Machine 122

Wire-stitchers. Artificial Light all Day . . .140
One End of a Crowded Bindery . . . .140

A Crowded Workroom 1 50

Accumulated Stock Gathering Dust . . .150
Midnight in a Magazine Bindery . . . .160

The Midnight Lunch Hour 160

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING

Gold Leaf Layers ,^5

A Stamper I76

Drop-roll Folding Machine ,84

Automatic Folding Machine ... ^4

Hand Folders .... 108

The Point Folding Machine . ,98

XVI

LIST OF TABLES

FABLE PAGE

1 . Binderies in Manhattan, by nature of products,

1910 26

2. Number of persons engaged in bookbinding in

the United States, by decades. 1850-1900 . 29

3. Distribution of women bookbinders. United

States, 1900 31

4. Women employed in bookbinding in Man-

hattan in 1910, by principal product of
binderies and number of women employed 33

5. Nativity and nativity of parents of women

employed in bookbinding, New York City 35

6. Weekly wages of women employed in book-

binding by years of employment in the
trade 75

7. Weekly earnings of women employed in

bookbinding during first week of employ-
ment in bookbinding 76

8. Binderies employing women as learners by

weekly wages of learners, and the minimum
age at which they are employed ... 78

9. Comparative weekly earnings of men and

women employed in bookbinding and of
women in all manufacturing industries.
New York state, 1905 79

10. Approximate yearly income of women em-

ployed in bookbinding, by ages ... 85

1 1 . Family status of women employed in book-

binding 87

xvii

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

12. Persons per room in families of women em-

ployed in bookbinding 97

13. Length of employment of 201 women em-

ployed in bookbinding 98

14. Maximum number of women employed in

bookbinding in Manhattan, by the season
of greatest activity of the establishments in
which they are employed . . . .104

15. Bookbinding establishments in Manhattan, by

season of greatest activity . . . .105

1 6. Proportion of women employed in book-

binding "laid off" in dull season in establish-
ments in Manhattan 107

17. Processes mentioned in advertisements for

bindery women in New York World, on
Sundays and Wednesdays, from July i,
1908, to June 30, 1909 108

1 8. Advertisements for bindery women in the New

York World, on Sundays and Wednesdays
from July i, 1908, to June 30, 1909, by
month and branch of trade . . . .110

19. Reasons for leaving positions in binderies

as stated by women employed in book-
binding 112

20. Length of time for which women were em-

ployed in latest position in bookbinding . 113

21. Number of positions held in past year by

women employed in bookbinding at time
of investigation 114

22. Periods for which women employed in book-

binding were idle after leaving positions . 115

23. Time lost in the past year from all causes by

women employed in bookbinding . . .117

xviii

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

24. Time lost in past year because of slack season,

by women employed in bookbinding . .118

25. Means by which women find positions in

bookbinding establishments . . . .125

26. Daily hours of work of women employed

in bookbinding 138

27. Weekly hours of work of women employed in

bookbinding 139

28. Violations in bookbinding establishments of

law restricting hours of work for women
and girls 141

APPENDIX B

SUPPLEMENTARY STATISTICS

A. Schools previously attended by 144 women

employed in bookbinding and by women in
all trades attending public evening schools,
New York City, 1910-191 1 .... 250

B. Last day school attended by women employed

in bookbinding and by women in all trades
attending public evening schools, New York
City, 1910-1911 250

C. Years of attendance at day school of women

employed in bookbinding and of women in
all trades attending public evening schools,
New York City, 1910-191 1 .... 251

D. Age at leaving day school of women employed

in bookbinding and of women in all trades
attending public evening schools, New York

City, 1910-191 1 251

xix

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

week reported their 'longest day's* laborVas
2oX, 22>^, and 24^ hours. These 'long days'
occurred once, and sometimes twice, a week for a
period of 16 to 26 weeks, except in the case of the
girl who worked 24^ hours. Her usual long day
was 20^4 hours, but she had worked 24^ twice
in 21 weeks/' Two of these girls were not yet
twenty-one years old.

It would appear, therefore, that in the twenty
years intervening between these two official re-
ports, the overtime work required of women in
bookbinding had not been lessened. But now the
public is beginning to display a keener interest in
the conditions of employment of women, and a
thorough investigation of a trade in which such
flagrant instances of overwork are officially recorded
should help to arouse the community to a fuller
sense of its responsibility for the welfare of wage-
earning girls. This volume is the result of such
an investigation made by the Committee on
Women's Work of the Russell Sage Founda-
tion.

The significance of the investigation is increased
by the varied aspects of the bookbinding industry,
and by its concentration and importance in New
York.f The United States census reports show
that in 1900 more than 15,000 women were en-
gaged in the bindery trade and its allied occupa-

* In binderies where such schedules of hours prevail, the phrase
"long day" is commonly used to refer to the long periods of work,
f See Chapter I, p. 32.

INTRODUCTORY

tions throughout the country.* More than 26
per cent of these were employed in New York City.
Except for the large groups of women in the gar-
ment industries — including dressmaking, seam-
stress work, tailoring, and millinery — bookbinding
ranks second only to cigar making as a trade for
women in this city. In no other trade in New
York are the numbers of men and women so
nearly equal. None illustrates better the sur-
vival of century old methods side by side with the
newest inventions. None can show more strik-
ingly the contrast between the artist craftsman and
the worker who automatically repeats a single
process, both of whom are called bookbinders.
Few occupations reveal more clearly the effect of
changing processes and changing machines. In
none can more marked instances be found of un-
equal distribution of work through the hours of
the day or the months of the year.

Bookbinding, however, is by no means the most
undesirable of occupations for women. Its con-
ditions are important not because they are unique
but because they illustrate concretely problems
common to many other industries. It is not in
binderies alone that conditions change rapidly;
that machines cause a reorganization of work and
then give place to new inventions involving further
reorganization; that speed is an essential require-
ment; that specialization is the custom, weakening

* Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Special Reports, Occupa-
tions, p. Hi.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

by continual repetition of one process that power of
adjustment so vital to success in a changing in-
dustrial environment ; that women work exhaust-
ingly long hours in the busy season; that irregu-
larity of employment during the dull season com-
pels the worker to forego all or part of her wages,
when even in the busy season the income of the
majority of women employes is insufficient for
self-support. Conditions like these would compel
attention even if they occurred in but one occu-
pation. When it is known that they affect the
welfare of young girls and women in many differ-
ent wage-earning pursuits, their importance is
greatly increased. To analyze the facts about
the bindery trade, to discover the constructive
forces potent in the industry, to disclose oppor-
tunities for further improvements by employers,
workers, and the community, and to make this
knowledge common property should point the
way toward changing the lot of women in many
industries in which similar conditions exist.

Many books have been written on bookbinding
as a craft, but not one has been found which con-
tains facts regarding conditions of employment.
The International Bookbinder, which describes itself
as "a journal devoted to the interests of the book-
binders of the United States and Canada/' is a
chronicle of events in the workers' trade union.
The United States census gives the numerical out-
lines of the industry, and contains some data about
wages, regularity of employment, and nationality

INTRODUCTORY

and age of the workers, but the figures are confused
by counting as bookbinding and blankbook mak-
ing* several minor occupations, such as book
stamping, chromo and show-card mounting, map
publishing, line ruling, and the making of paper
tablets, sample cards, and show cards, whose con-
ditions do not resemble the real bindery trade.
The reports of the New York State Department of
Labor give the number of establishments in the
state and city and their size, the number of men,
women, and children employed, the normal hours
of labor of the workers as a whole,! and the number
and results of inspections and prosecutions.

Important as are these sources of information,
the facts which they present are incomplete as a
basis for a study of women workers. From them
we learn nothing about the organization of the
workroom force nor the processes carried on by
women. They give no information about wages in
relation to length of experience, about the methods
of training workers, or about the previous schooling
of the girls who enter the industry. They contain
no facts about a girl's trade career, the necessity
for frequent change from one shop to another, or
from one occupation to another; the uncertainty
of the seasons or the reasons for irregular employ-
ment. They do not show the home responsibilities
of bindery girls nor their attitude toward their
work. They do not give the facts about overtime.

* Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Manufactures, Vol. VII,
p. 693. t Hours are not reported separately for women however.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

They do not show differences as between establish-
ments or between diverse branches of the trade.
Thus, although the official figures throw light on
the extent of the industry, its location, and certain of
its external characteristics, nevertheless, to under-
stand how women workers fare in this occupation,
it was necessary to observe shop conditions at first
hand, to interview employers, and to know a number
of bindery women personally in their own homes.

The foundation of this report was the industrial
history of 201 women workers in the trade, com-
bined with data secured from all the binderies in
Manhattan. The main subjects on which informa-
tion was sought in the interviews with employers
and workers were the processes of work done by
women in the various branches of the trade, irreg-
ularity of employment, hours of work, the enforce-
ment of factory laws, wages, home responsibilities,
the activity of the trade union and the attitude of
women workers and employers toward it, and the
methods of teaching girls the trade. Three record
cards,* 5x8 inches in size,were used in the field work,
one for the record of a worker, one for the record of
a workshop, and one for the worker's report of
conditions in the shop in which she was employed.

A brief outline of the sources of names and ad-
dresses, and the methods of interviewing, is neces-
sary to show how the detailed information asked
for was secured. The field work was begun in co-

* See Appendix A, pp. 239-248, for outline of investigation, and
facsimiles of cards.

INTRODUCTORY

operation with the Alliance Employment Bureau,
a philanthropic agency, managed by representa-
tives of social settlements and working girls' clubs,
which undertakes to find employment for girls in
trades and offices. The Bureau had from time to
time received applications for work from women
who had had experience in the bindery trade or who
wished to learn it. On the other hand, it had fre-
quently been asked by employers to supply them
with bindery workers. It is the policy of this
agency to investigate work-places before sending
applicants to them, and the managers believed
that a thorough study of binderies would yield the
information needed to enable them to place girls
in establishments where good conditions prevail.
Thus, while the larger purpose of the investigation
was to gather evidence regarding conditions in the
industry as they affect women workers, the early
part of the inquiry was designed to be of immediate
use in the daily placement work of the Alliance
Employment Bureau. This latter object afforded
a reason for seeking interviews and enabled the
investigators, in visiting both establishments and
workers, to act as agents of the Bureau.

This preliminary, co-operative investigation was
made between August i, 1908, and August i, 1909,
while the Committee on Women's Work was a
department of the Alliance Employment Bureau.
The study was completed in the winter and spring
of 1910-11, when employers representing some of
the largest binderies in New York were again inter-

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

viewed by agents of the Committee, and more than
100 visits were made at the homes of bindery girls
attending public evening schools in Manhattan
and the Bronx. The field work lasted until July,
191 1.

The first task was to secure the names and ad-
dresses of all binderies in Manhattan. A street
directory in the form of a card index was compiled
from as many sources as possible, including the
business directories of New York City, the files of
the Alliance Employment Bureau, the statements
of bindery workers regarding their places of em-
ployment, and all advertisements for bindery
women appearing in The World during a period
of six months. It may be that a few binderies
were omitted, but shops which did not appear in
any of these sources could not have been important.
The difficulty of securing a complete list of es-
tablishments in one trade even in a single borough
of New York, is an evidence of the interlocking of
occupations. Not all bookbinderies are indepen-
dent. Bindery departments were discovered in
lithographing establishments, in printing offices, in
sample card manufactories, and even in so unex-
pected a place as a wholesale store, where the trade
catalogue of the firm was bound on the premises.
In this part of the investigation alone 478 visits
were made at 417 addresses, with the result that
247 binderies or bindery departments employing a
regular force of women were found, while 33 of the
places visited were printing offices, or lithograph-

INTRODUCTORY

ing establishments, or other allied branches of the
printing industry, in which bindery hands were
employed only for temporary work. Some estab-
lishments had failed or had moved out of the
borough of Manhattan, a few had consolidated
with other firms, and in several no women were
employed in binding processes. Of the 247 per-
manent binderies visited, 210 were investigated.
Information about the others was incomplete.

The investigation of bindery establishments pre-
sented peculiar difficulties. To secure complete
information from every employer interviewed
was impossible. The obstacles were due not al-
ways to lack of interest on the part of the em-
ployer, or to a desire to conceal his "own business/'
but often to indefmiteness of conditions. Not all
workshops are as carefully organized as the in-
dustrial ideal of the present century demands.
"It depends on the orders/' and "It all depends
on the run of work/' are replies recorded in answer
to questions regarding wages, seasons, and other
conditions. " How can I tell what kind of work's
coming in?" said one employer impatiently when
asked what branch of the trade was his specialty.
Great differences in organization, found not only in
different establishments, but in the same establish-
ment from day to day, present many obstacles to
the gathering of exact statistics. In many cases,
however, employers gave very full information
about the conditions of work of the women in their
binderies. Their statements were verified and

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

supplemented by the case study of bindery girls.
At the close of the investigation it was found that
members of the group of girls interviewed had been
employed at some time during their trade careers
in over 50 per cent of the binderies investigated.
This fact made it possible to determine the accuracy
and value of statements made both by employers
and by workers.*

The names of bindery girls were secured from
the files of the Alliance Employment Bureau, from
public evening schools, girls' clubs, and other or-
ganizations, and from women in the trade. The
list numbered 362. To cover these cases it was
necessary to make 732 visits. The number of
complete records secured was 2Oi.| The reasons
for not securing full information from the others
are various. Of the whole group, 61 girls had not

* Girls were interviewed who had worked in 36 of the 37 edition and
pamphlet binderies in New York, employing 50 or more girls, in 56 of
the 1 19 edition, pamphlet, job, and art binderies employing less than
50, and in 17 of the 54 blankbook binderies investigated. Of one
bindery 21 present or former employes were interviewed, of another
19, another 18, and another 14. None were interviewed in the
workroom.

fThe sources of these 201 names were varied enough to inspire
confidence in the representative character of the results.

Alliance Employment Bureau 86

Fellow workers in binderies 53

Evening schools 36

Settlements or girls' clubs, etc 20

(Includes Jacob A. Riis House, Richmond Hill
House, Girls' Friendly Society, Educational Alli-
ance, Greenpoint Settlement)

Visits to binderies 4

Manhattan Trade School i

Advertisement i

Total 201

INTRODUCTORY

been in the trade within the year preceding the
date of the interview, and therefore their records
were not tabulated; 13 gave incomplete or inac-
curate information; 87 were not found, had never
worked in the trade, had definitely left it, or were
employed only in some allied process like litho-
graphing, pattern folding, sample card mounting,
or printing. Interviews with those girls whose
records were not complete or recent enough to be
tabulated, or who were employed in some allied
process, often, however, threw light on conditions
of work and thus contributed data to the investi-
gation.

Such a case study of workers is more time-con-
suming than is the investigation of work places.
The visits must be made at night to find the girls
at home from work. It is seldom possible for
one person to talk fully with more than two in an
evening, and often the whole time is given to one.
The majority of the interviews were in the homes
of the workers, although several girls were met
in the office of the Alliance Employment Bureau,
and a few at a social settlement. Plenty of time
was allowed for full and frank discussion. The
record cards were not used during the conversa-
tion, lest their appearance should have a chilling
effect.

The investigators who took part in the field
work for long or short periods in the course of the
study were Miss Louise C. Odencrantz, Miss
Zaida E. Udell, Miss Elizabeth L. Meigs, and

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

the writer. Miss Odencrantz also tabulated the
records and compiled the statistics used in these
chapters.

To those who expect investigators to outline a
single, clear-cut method of reform, these pages
may be a disappointment. The material is not
arranged as an argument in favor of any special
social program. It proves rather the complexity
of the problem and the necessity of varied methods
of approach. It is designed to afford full and de-
tailed information presented without bias, in the
hope of enlisting the interest of those who as em-
ployers, as workers, as teachers, as legislators, as
voters, or as buyers, share responsibility for the
welfare of wage-earning women.

CHAPTER II
THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

THE bookbinder of today has a more complex
business to manage than did his predecessor
of two or three hundred years ago. His
products are used so widely that he serves prac-
tically every trade, business, or profession in the
community. He binds the Bible, Shakespeare,
and many less classic writings for individual cus-
tomers. He covers several thousand volumes of
a new novel for a publisher. He takes an order
from a printer to bind copies of a pamphlet. He
stitches programs for a theater or an opera house,
or fastens together the sheets of a church calendar.
He makes manifold books for the use of sales-
women in department stores. He puts together
the leaves of a telephone directory and pastes
on the cover. He works for stock brokers, law-
yers, gas companies, steel corporations, and banks,
binding briefs, numbering checks, paging cash
books, and rebinding heavy ledgers. He folds,
stitches, and mails magazines for publishers, and
makes albums, not so often now-a-days for family
photographs as for postal cards and kodak pic-
tures. He binds school books, and rebinds vol-
umes for the public library. Sometimes he takes

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

over work from another bookbinder, who has
secured an order too large for him to handle
alone, or who is specializing in some other line.
He also handles trade catalogues, and all sorts and
conditions of advertising material, thus being
called upon to adjust his business to the seasons
and market conditions of every occupation which
uses printed advertisements. And with all this
extension of the trade have come changes in
methods and conditions which have exerted a far-
reaching influence on the welfare of the workers.
In New York, where more bookbinders congregate
than in any other city of the United States, this
complexity is magnified.

Nevertheless, in spite of the variety of products
and processes involved in the modern industry,
to many the word "bookbinding" still suggests
only morocco and gold leaf, — the artist's design,
the craftsman's skilful touch. But the treasures
of the bibliophile are produced in only a very few
small shops in New York today, and in the large
binderies, equipped with machinery, the methods
which have been adopted bear slight resemblance
to the ancient art of bookbinding.

The careful hand work of the eighteenth century
is eclipsed by machinery, and the detailed ac-
counts rendered by Roger Payne to his cus-
tomers would make the bookkeeper of a modern
bindery smile in wonder. His bill for binding a
copy of "Aeschylus Glasguae MDCCXCV Flax-
man illustravit," reads:

PASTING MACHINE

EDGE GILDERS

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

" Bound in the very best manner, sew'd with
strong Silk, every Sheet round every Band, not
false bands: the Back lined with Russia Leather,
Cut Exceeding large; Finished in the most magni-
ficent manner. Embordered with ERMINE ex-
pressive of The High Rank of the Noble Patroness
of The Designs, The other Parts Finished in the
most Elegant Taste with small Tool Gold Borders
Studded with Gold; and small Tool Panes of the
most exact Work. Measured with the Compasses.
It takes a great deal of Time making out the differ-
ent measurements, preparing the Tools, and mak-
ing out new Patterns. The Back Finished in
Compartments with parts of Gold studded work
and open Work to relieve the Rich close studded
work."* He continues with a description of
his methods, as further justification for the size
of his bill: "All the Tools except studded points
are obliged to be worked off plain first, and after-
wards the Gold laid on and Worked off again.
And this Gold Work requires double Gold being
on Rough Grained Morocco. The impressions
of the Tools must be fitted and cover'd at the
bottom with Gold to prevent flaws and cracks/'

But archaic as this description sounds, book-
binding has a history beginning long before
the time of Roger Payne. Preceding him were
Grolier in France in the reign of Francis I, the
Italian binders of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-

* Quoted in Encyclopedia Britannica, gth edition, 1876. Vol. IV,
p. 42.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

turies, the monks in the dark ages, who executed
elaborate bindings for the preservation of their
hand-written volumes, and earlier still the slaves
who bound manuscripts when the Roman Empire
was at the height of its power. Older than these
were the palm leaves "bound" by silken strings,
which formed the sacred books of Ceylon, and still
more ancient the tiles of baked clay encased one
within another.*

Nor was the delicate art of bookbinding in early
days confined to men. On the contrary there are
scattered references in history and in fiction which
indicate that for several centuries women have
helped to bind books. Stevenson tells us that in
1450 in the court of Blois, a woman, the widow of
a bookbinder, bound books for Charles of Orleans. f
"He (Charles of Orleans) was a bit of a book-
fancier, and had vied with his brother Angouleme
in bringing back the library of their grandfather
Charles V when Bedford put it up for sale in Lon-
don. The duchess had a library of her own ; and
we hear of her borrowing romances from ladies
in attendance on the blue-stocking Margaret of
Scotland. Not only were books collected, but
new books were written at the court of Blois.
The widow of one Jean Fougere, a bookbinder,
seems to have done a number of odd commissions

* Zaehnsdorf, J. W. : Bookbinding, Introduction. London,
George Bell and Sons, 1903.

t Stevenson, Robert Louis: Works, Vol. XIV, Familiar Studies of
Men and Books, Essay on Charles of Orleans, p. 233. New York,
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895.

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

for the bibliophilous count. She it was who re-
ceived three vellum skins to bind the duchess's
Book of Hours, and who was employed to prepare
parchment for the use of the duke's scribes. And
she it was who bound in vermillion leather the
great manuscript of Charles's own poems, which
was presented to him by his secretary, Anthony
Astesan,with the text in one column, and Astesan's
Latin version in the other."

And as time went on it is evident that the art
was one in which the plodding industry as well as
the taste of women found employment, for we
learn from Victor Hugo that about the year 1800,
Jean Valjean in the fourth year of his captivity
had news that his sister was trying to support
herself and her little son by binding pamphlets in
Paris.* "Every morning she went to a printing
office, No. 3 Rue de Sabot, where she was a folder
and stitcher; she had to be there at 6 in the morn-
ing, long before daylight in winter. In the same
house with the printing office there was a day
school, to which she took her little boy, who was
seven years of age. But as she went to work at 6
and the school did not open till 7 o'clock, the boy
was compelled to wait in the yard for an hour, in
winter, — an hour of night in the open air. The
boy was not allowed to enter the printing office,
because it was said that he would be in the way."

Long before 1800, however, the industry had

* Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables. Fantine, Book II, Chapter VI,
pp. 128-129. Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1887.
2 17

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

crossed to America, for we have the account of one
Hugh Gaine,* who in 1752 had a printing and bind-
ing establishment in Hanover Square, New York.
It is probable that as soon as men began to prac-
tice the art in the United States, women were
employed for some of the processes. In 1834
when Harriet Martineau visited this country she
found women engaged as folders and stitchers.
The reference in her bookf is as interesting for
her emphatic denunciation of the social condi-
tions that prevailed at the time as for her dis-
closure that the trade of bookbinding was one
in which women were supporting themselves.
In a country "where it is a boast that women
do not labour," she wrote, " the encourage-
ment and rewards of labour are not pro-
vided. It is so in America. In some parts there
are now so many women dependent on their own
exertions for a maintenance, that the evil will give
way before the force of circumstances. In the
meantime, the lot of poor women is sad. Before
the opening of the factories, there were but three
resources; teaching, needle- work, and keeping
boarding-houses or hotels. Now there are the
mills; and women are employed in printing offices
as compositors, as well as folders and stitchers."
Before the date of Harriet Martineau's visit,
Philadelphia had become the largest publishing

* Depew, C. ML: One Hundred Years of American Commerce, p.
642. New York, D. O. Haynes and Co., 1895.

t Martineau, Harriet: Society in America, Vol. II, p. 257. New
York, Saunders and Otley, 1837.

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

center, and boasted "the greatest publisher in the
United States/' Mathew Carey.* Thus some very
early products of the bindery trade in this country
were such pamphlets as "An open letter to the
ladies who have undertaken to establish a house of
industry," published in 1831 by Carey, and "An
appeal to the wealth of the land on the character,
conduct, situation, and prospects of those whose
sole dependence for subsistence is on the labour of
their hands," a document issued in 1833. Indeed,
Carey himself took an active interest in the condi-
tions of women's work, carrying on a pamphlet and
newspaper agitation for better wages for them,
and presiding at a large meeting of working women,
which included bookbinders. This meeting was
called for the purpose of organizing the Female
Improvement Society, with committees represent-
ing different trades. f

When the printing press came into general use
and multiplied the number of books, necessarily
the careful binding heretofore accorded a single
laboriously written manuscript gave place to more
rapid methods of preparing volumes for the hands
of readers. Separated in beauty of form and
finish as is a Grolier edition of De Bury's Philo-
biblon from a quarterly telephone directory, there

* Depew, C. M.: One Hundred Years of American Commerce,
p. 314. New York, D. O. Haynes and Co., 1895.

t Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-earners in
the United States. Vol. X, History of Women in Trade Unions,
pp. 39-40. U. S. Senate document No. 645. Pages 40-41 refer to a
strike in 1835 by the Female Book Union Association in New York
in an effort to secure " a small advance in their list of prices."

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

is a fundamental resemblance in the processes of
binding. In both it is the task of the binder to
take the sheets as they have come from the print-
ing press, and so treat them that their preservation
in proper sequence will be assured. Whether a
book is to be bound by hand or machine, whether
it is to be covered with levant or thin paper,
whether it is to be sewed with linen thread or
stitched with wire, it is necessary to fold the sheets
in uniform size, to fasten the folded sections to-
gether in proper sequence, and to put on a cover.
It is in the covering that the branches of the trade
differ most widely. The making of the hand-
bound book, designed to last several generations,
demands the most numerous processes. At the
other extreme is the paper-covered pamphlet
whose destination is likely to be the nearest waste
basket.

THE PROCESS OF BINDING

If a book is to be bound by hand, the printed
sheets are first folded to the desired size. For
example, a quarto sheet is folded into two folds
making a section of four leaves or eight pages, and
an octavo into four folds making a section of
eight leaves or 16 pages. The sections are then
gathered in proper sequence, as indicated by a
number called "the signature" printed on the
first page of the section. They are then beaten
with a hammer or rolled in a machine to make
them a compact volume. They are next "col-

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

lated," or examined, to make sure that each page
is in its proper place. At various stages the
volume is pressed. If the book is to be sewed
"flexible" on raised cords, the back must be
marked to show the position of the cords, and if
they are to be embedded in the back, grooves are
sawed for them. When the end papers have been
put in, the rough edges trimmed, and the back
rounded, the book is ready for its cover. The
ends of the cords are drawn through holes in the
mill-boards (the stiff foundation of a cover),
pasted, and hammered smooth. The edges of the
pages are cut with the "plough" in the cutting
machine, to give each page uniform margins.
The edges may then be sprinkled, colored, or gilded,
after which the head-bands are attached to the
back at top and bottom. Finally, the book is
covered with leather or silk or some other material,
and the cover is ornamented. These last pro-
cesses vary with the kind of material used and the
plan of ornamentation.

The machine method of binding books omits
many processes of hand binding, and combines
others into one simple operation. In hand bind-
ing, one book is the center of attention until it is
finished, and each volume may receive slightly
different treatment according to the design chosen
for it. In machine binding, the method is to re-
peat one process thousands of times, adopting the
factory system with its division of labor and its
mechanical devices. Books and their covers are

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

fed by the hundred through machines in different
departments, and they are not brought together
until the last stage is reached. Machines fold,
gather, smash, sew, trim, round, and back. The
backs are lined up and glued in quick succession,
and in gilding the edges, instead of handling the
volumes one by one, several are placed in a " lying-
press " and gilded simultaneously. These proc-
esses involved in getting the sheets ready for the
cover are called "forwarding."

In the meantime, the cover or case is being pre-
pared. The boards and the cloth are cut to fit the
volume, and both are fed into the case-making
machine, which covers the cloth with glue, lays
the boards in their proper places, pastes a strip of
paper on the back, and turns down the edges of
the cloth, all in one complex operation, delivering
the finished cases at the side of the machine. If
the covers are to be ornamented or lettered, gold
leaf, or some substitute, is laid on by hand, and
the titles or designs stamped into the cloth by
means of a powerful press. The "forwarded
books" and the covers are then fed into the casing-
in machine, which smears the sides of each volume
with paste and automatically attaches the covers.

A pamphlet must be folded and its sections
placed in as accurate order as a book bound in
cloth or morocco, but as the pamphlet is to be
covered only with heavy paper it does not require
pressing, trimming, and retrimming, rounding and
backing, gluing, lining-up, drawing-off, and all the

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

other diverse manipulations by which the hand
worker on a single volume insures the preserva-
tion of the sheets in a solid and substantial bind-
ing. A pamphlet may be so printed that its sheets
when folded must be inserted one within the other.
In that case the paper cover may be put on before
the pamphlet is stitched, and a wire staple, taking
the place of the linen thread used in books, may
be inserted from the back of the cover through the
center of the inner sheet. Or the sections may be
laid one on top of the other, and stitched flat along
the back a short distance in from the edges. Then
the cover is pasted, by hand or by machine, to the
back of these stitched sheets.

A magazine or periodical is in reality a pamphlet,
but it is characterized by uniformity of size week
after week, or month after month. Thus it lends
itself admirably to machine production. When
the gauges have once been set to fit the sheets
they need not be changed, and it is possible to com-
bine several machines in one.

A word must be said of blankbook making, al-
though this report concerns mainly the binding of
printed books. The blankbook maker does not
receive the sheets from a printer ready for binding.
His trade includes the ruling and numbering of the
pages of account books, ledgers, diaries, address
books, albums, copybooks, and portfolios. In his
craft, as in that of the "printer's binder/' the
processes of work vary with the degree of preserva-
tion required for the sheets. A heavy ledger, of

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

inestimable value to some business establishment,
may be bound and rebound by hand in the most
substantial way. A school child's copybook may
be sewed by machine without any elaborate prep-
aration for a covering. With the introduction of
card systems and loose leaf note books, a great
change has come over a portion of the blankbook
maker's trade, and in some cases the "binder" has
become the "manufacturer of loose leaf devices."

BRANCHES OF THE TRADE

Variety in products and in methods of work has
divided the bookbinding trade into branches, with
diverse processes, different machines, and distinct
labor conditions. In the "job" bindery, for in-
stance, each book is bound by hand for a "private"
as distinguished from a "business" customer. The
owner may be an art binder, who ornaments the
covers of books with beautiful designs, or he may
omit all ornament and devote his attention merely
to executing a strong and durable piece of work.
In the "edition" bindery, as its name implies,
editions of thousands of volumes, all alike, are
turned out by machines. The customers are
usually publishers, unless the printer, from whom
the binder receives the printed sheets of the book,
acts as middleman between publisher and binder.
In the "pamphlet" bindery, pamphlets are folded,
stitched, and covered, but no books are bound
in cloth or leather. In the "magazine" bindery,
periodicals are bound and mailed. The customers

SEWING BOOKS BY HAND

SEWING BOOKS BY MACHINE

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

are publishers, or printers who make the contract
with the publishers and then give out the binding
to other establishments. In the "blankbook"
bindery paper is ruled and blankbooks manufac-
tured or rebound. The customer may be an indi-
vidual or a firm giving an order for a single job,
or a wholesale stationer ordering books in large
quantities.

These five — job, edition, pamphlet, magazine,
and blankbook binding — are the distinct branches
of the trade. One bookbinding establishment
may include them all. It may be equipped not
only with wire-stitching machines, but with sewing
machines. Not only may pamphlets be covered,
but books may be bound. A woman, sitting be-
fore an old-fashioned frame, may sew a single book
for a private customer, while, at the same time, a
hundred thousand copies of a monthly magazine
may be passing through the gathering machine.
An establishment may lack one department
necessary for the complete binding of a book, and
a block or more away may be found another de-
voting its entire force to the work of that one de-
partment. For example, the trade includes firms
whose only work is to gild the edges of books, or
to lay the gold and stamp the covers, or to num-
ber checks, bonds, and insurance policies. Mar-
bling papers for the use of binders is now regarded
as a separate industry. This specialization has
made possible the work of a middleman or agent, —
to transfer a single branch of the work from the

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

binder who does not wish to handle it to the firm
which makes it a specialty. Nevertheless, the
middleman does not seem yet to be conspicuous
in the industry.

THE TRADE IN NEW YORK

The most important center of the bookbinding
trade in the United States is New York City.*
The value of the products of New York binderies
is 36 per cent of the total value of these products
in the whole country. In the borough of Man-
hattan alone, 280 binderies, including temporary
departments, were found in the course of this in-
vestigation.

TABLE 1.— BINDERIES IN MANHATTAN. BY NATURE OF
PRODUCTS, 1910

Binderies

Number

Per Cent
of all
Binderies

All binderies

280

Binderies engaged in —

Edition work

Pamphlet and magazine work .

149

Job or art work

Blankbook making, ruling, numbering, etc.
Binding departments of establishments en-

gaged in-

Lithographing

Printing
Engraving, manufacture of stationery, etc.

98
26

35
9

Of the binderies in Manhattan, 5 3 per cent bind
pamphlets and magazines, 20 per cent do edition

* Cf. United States Census, Bulletin 59, New York State, Manu-
factures, p. 50, 1905.

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

work, 1 6 per cent job or art work, 26 per cent blank-
book work, 5 per cent are departments of litho-
graphing establishments, 35 per cent printing
offices, and 9 per cent are allied with engraving,
stationery work, etc. These divisions are not
mutually exclusive. It is often difficult to classify
an establishment as an edition bindery, or a pam-
phlet or magazine bindery, as the different products
may be found in the same workroom. In that
case the shop has been counted in each of these
branches of the trade.

The bookbinding trade has tended not only to
concentrate in New York, but much of it has
crowded into a single district of the city. The
section of Manhattan Island about the City Hall
may be regarded as the heart of the industry.
Within a radius of a mile of the City Hall, in a
semi-circle east of Broadway, 126 binderies, 45
per cent of the total in the borough of Manhattan,
are located.

Between 1900 and 1905 the importance of the
trade in New York state increased from $5, 354,004
to $7,557,640, in capital invested, an increase of
4 1 .2 per cent ; from 7, 1 52 to 7,984, or 1 1 .6 per cent,
in number of wage-earners; from $3, 152, 739 to
$3,648,146, or 15.7 per cent, in total amount paid
in wages; and from $9,049,198 to $11,165,333, or
23.4 per cent, in value of products.* The classi-
fication of establishments according to value of

* United States Census, Bulletin 59, New York State, Manu-
factures, pp. 6, 10, 1905.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

products brings to light the fact that in New York
state in 1905, 212, or 69.7 per cent, of the total
number of bookbinderies reported the value of
their yearly output as less than $20,000 for each
establishment, while only 26, or 8.6 per cent, valued
their products as high as "$100,000 but less than
$1,000,000." This small group of 26 binderies
reported 72.7 per cent of the total capital, about
$5,500,000, and 53.9 per cent, or 4,306, of the total
number of wage-earners in the bookbinding in-
dustry in New York state, while the much larger
group of 212 binderies jointly claimed onlyio per
cent, about $750,000, of the capital, and 17.7 per
cent, or 1,408, of the number of employes.* Thus
the greater part of the industry is in the hands
of a few, whose establishments, in value of prod-
ucts and number of employes, outrank the com-
bined forces of more than nine-tenths of the
employers in the trade.

Official figures in the United States census indi-
cate a steady growth in the number of women em-
ployed in the bookbinding trade since 1870, when
for the first time wage-earning women were sepa-
rately classified according to their occupations.
Indeed, it was not until 1850 that any detailed in-
quiry regarding wage-earning pursuits was made
by census enumerators, and even then these ques-
tions did not apply to women and slaves. At that
time 3,414 men over fifteen years of age were

* United States Census, Bulletin 59, New York State, Manu-
factures, p. 41, 1905.

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

recorded as bookbinders.* A decade later, in
1860, the trade of every free person, man or woman,
was ascertained, but in the tabulation men and
women were grouped together, so that for that
year only the total number of bookbinders, 6,360,
is known. In later years men and women ten
years of age and over were counted separately.
The facts are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2— NUMBER OF PERSONS ENGAGED IN BOOK-
BINDING IN THE UNITED STATES, BY
DECADES. 1850-1900a

Census
Year

All Persons

Men

Women

Per Cent
Women

1850

3,414

1860

6,360

..b

. .

1870

9,104

6,375

2,729

30.0

1880

13.833

8,342

5,49i

39-7

1890

23,858

12,298

11,560

48.5

1900

30,278

14,646

15,632

51-6

* Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Special Reports, Occupa-
tions, pp. Hi, Ix.

b Facts not given in the Census.

Thus, in 1870, when for the first time women in
occupations were counted separately, 2,729 women
and 6,375 mer* were found to be employed in the
bindery trade in the United States. Of these
groups, 1,309 women and 1,898 men were living in
New York and Brooklyn. f From this decade on,
not only did the number of bookbinders (men and

* Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Special Reports, Occupa-
tions, p. Ix.

t Ninth United States Census, 1870. Vol. I, Population and Social
Statistics, pp. 779, 793.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

women) increase, but the proportion of women in
the trade grew rapidly larger. In 1870, 30 per
cent of the employes in binderies were women
and 70 per cent were men; in 1880, 39.7 per cent
were women and 60.3 per cent were men; in

15,632

15.000

10,000

5,000

Men Women
1870

Men Women
1880

Men Women
1890

Men Women
1900

CHART I. — MEN AND WOMEN BOOKBINDERS IN THE UNITED STATES,
1870, 1880, 1890, AND 1900

1890, 48.5 per cent were women and 5 1.5 per cent
were men; in 1900, 5 1.6 per cent were women and
48.4 per cent were men. The facts are shown in
Chart I.

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

In 1900, more than 14,000 men and over
15,000 women were counted as bookbinders
throughout the country.

TABLE 3.— DISTRIBUTION OF WOMEN BOOKBINDERS.
UNITED STATES, 1900*

WOMEN BOOK-

BINDERS

Residence

Number

Per Cent

New York, N. Y.

4,086

26.1

Chicago, 111.

i, 612

10.3

Philadelphia, Pa.

1,168

7-5

Boston, Mass.

897

5-7

St. Louis, Mo.

487

3-1

Washington, D. C.

279

Cambridge, Mass.

274

Milwaukee, Wis.

267

•7

Jersey City, N. J.

265

•7

San Francisco, Cal.

225

•4

Cincinnati, O.

215

•4

Buffalo, N. Y.

208

•3

Cleveland, O.

172

Baltimore, Md.

164

Detroit, Mich.

158

Other cities of 50 ooo or more

2,372

15.2

Smaller cities and country districts

2,783

17.8

Total in the United States.

15,632

1 00.0

a Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Special Reports, Occupa-
tions.

Considered geographically, the census states that
four-fifths of the bindery women in the United
States were found in the North Atlantic division,
which includes the three cities of Boston, Phila-
delphia, and New York.* Of these three cities

* Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Special Reports, Statistics
of Women at Work, p. 196.

III.

hllm

O UJ

m U

o Z

N <N T*

€ 1 3 1 1 § a s .§ .^ I

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

the census reports that New York employed
4,086, Philadelphia, 1,168, and Boston, 897.

Thus Philadelphia has surrendered to New York
her supremacy of the time of Mathew Carey.
Chicago, also, employing 1,612 women, had out-
stripped Philadelphia. These data are shown
graphically in Chart II.

The numbers given for New York in that year
are, however, not representative of conditions to-
day. According to our investigation, verified by
comparison with the records of the State Depart-
ment of Labor, about 6,000 women are now at work
in binderies in the borough of Manhattan alone.*
Table 4 shows roughly their distribution in the
different branches of the trade.

TABLE 4— WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING IN

MANHATTAN IN 1910, BY PRINCIPAL PRODUCT OF

BINDERIES AND NUMBEROF WOMEN EMPLOYED*

Product of Binderies

WOMEN IN BIND-
ERIES EMPLOYING

ALL WOMEN

Less than
50 Women

50 or more
Women

Number

Per Cent

Edition workb
Pamphlet and maga-
zine work only
Job and art binding .
Blankbook making

515

.,338

9*
936

2,433
835

2,948

2,173

9*
936

48
35

Total .

2,885

3,268

6,153

IOO

a Information on this point was secured for 243 binderies, although
only 2 10 were more thoroughly investigated. In all, 280 binderies,
or bindery departments, were found in Manhattan. Of these, 37 did
not report number of employes.

b Includes binderies with important pamphlet departments, but
the chief work in each case is edition.

* For statement as to sources of information see Note at close of
this^chapter, pp. 36-37.

3 33

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

Establishments whose chief work is edition
binding employ 2,948 women, or 48 per cent of
the total number found at work in this investiga-
tion. Binders of pamphlets and magazines employ
35 per cent, and blankbook makers 15 per cent.
Only 96 women (2 per cent) work in hand binderies.
As to the size of establishments, the table shows
that the largest group in the edition branch of the
trade work in binderies employing 50 or more
women, while the majority of pamphlet and maga-
zine binders are in small establishments. All the
job or art binderies and the blankbook manu-
factories investigated have forces of less than 50
women.*

NATIVITY OF BINDERY WOMEN

Commenting on the fact that bookbinding is cen-
tered in the large cities of the country, the census
characterizes it as "an occupation in which 57.4
per cent of the women employed are the daughters
of immigrants.''! Without knowing the names

* According to the report of the State Department of Labor for
1910, 1,155 men and women in the bookbinding trade in New York
City were employed in shops whose force numbered less than 20;
4,706 worked in binderies employing 20 to 199, while only 2,254 were
in establishments employing 200 or more. Report of the New York
State Department of Labor, Factory Inspection, 1910, p. 316.

The typical form of ownership has been the individual rather than
the firm or corporation, but both individual and firm ownership lost
ground in New York between 1900 and 1905 while corporation owner-
ship increased. Of all the binderies in the state, only 15.1 per cent
are incorporated, but they employ 49.8 per cent of the total number
of wage-earners in the industry. U. S. Census, Bulletin 59, New
York State, Manufactures, p. 33, 1905.

t Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Statistics of Women at
Work, p. 35.

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

of the countries from which these immigrants
come, however, such a statement would give a
wrong impression of the nativity and extraction of
bindery girls in New York. Of 16 trades listed in
the census as employing 1,000 or more women in
New York, bookbinding actually has the largest
proportion of workers of native parentage. The
birthplaces of the girls interviewed in this investi-
gation and the nativity of their fathers are shown
in Table 5, with a column added giving the cor-
responding census figures.

TABLE 5.— NATIVITY AND NATIVITY OF PARENTS OF
WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING, NEW YORK CITY

Country

of
Birth

DATA OF PRESENT INVESTIGA-

TJONa

CENSUS
FIGURES

Women Born
as Specified

Women with
Fathers Born
as Specified

Women with
Parents Born
as Specified**

Number

Per
Cent

Number

Per
Cent

Number

Per
Cent

United States
Ireland .
Germany
Italy . .
Russiac .
Great Britain
Other Countries'1

178
3
4
7
4

90.4
1-5

2.0

3.6

2.0

• 5

47
59

,8.7

3O.O

12.2
9.1

1.8

7-3

902

I.79I
670

34
72

2|4
363

22.1

43.8
16.4
.8
1.8

6.2

8.9

Total . .

197

IOO.O

I64

IOO.O

4,086

IOO.O

»Of 201 women interviewed, 4 did not supply information as to
nativity, and 37 as to nativity of fathers.

b Both parents born as specified, or one as specified and the other
native born. Mixed foreign parentage is included under "other."
Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Special Reports, Occupations,
p. 640. c Including Poland.

d Includes Bohemia, Scandinavia, Canada, France, Australia.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

Of the girls interviewed, 90 per cent were born
in the United States and 29 per cent were of native-
born parentage, while the largest group (36 per
cent) were children of Irish fathers, a nationality
not regarded as "foreign " in New York. The cen-
sus figures show 22 per cent native parentage,
and 44 per cent Irish, but in the rank of nations
represented the census in a general way confirms
our results, even though the proportions are not
identical. Judging by these figures, the book-
binding trade in New York is an excellent occupa-
tion in which to study the conditions of employ-
ment of native born, wage-earning women.

NOTE TO CHAPTER II

Four sources of information are considered in ascertaining the
number of women employed in binderies in the borough of Man-
hattan,— the census statistics of population in 1900, the census sta-
tistics of manufactures in 1900 and in 1905, the report of the New York
State Department of Labor for the years ending September 30, 1905,
and 1910, and the records of the investigation on which this report
is based. Both the census figures and the factory inspectors' reports
include other minor occupations in the same group and do not dis-
tinguish the different branches of the trade. In our own investiga-
tion we have tried to ascertain the minimum and maximum number
of women employed during the year, but frequent changes in organ-
ization made it very difficult to secure exact information. The
interlocking of the various branches of the trade with each other
and with allied occupations also made accurate classification almost
impossible. The combined data show some contradictions.

In 1900, according to the census of population, 4,086 women
bookbinders were counted in households in New York City, of whom
1,974 were living in Manhattan and the Bronx, and 2,051 were
living in Brooklyn. (Undoubtedly many bindery women who work
in Manhattan live in Brooklyn, and, in the population statistics,
were enumerated in Brooklyn.)

In 1900, according to the census of manufactures, 3,119 women
were counted in binderies in New York City, of whom 2,957 were
working in Manhattan and the Bronx and 162 were working in
Brooklyn.

THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

In 1905, according to the report of the State Department of
Labor, 3,365 women were counted in binderies in New York City,
of whom 2,83 1 were working in Manhattan and the Bronx, and 492
in Brooklyn.

In 1905, according to the census of manufactures, 3,382 women
were counted in binderies of New York City, of whom 2,920 were
working in Manhattan and the Bronx, and 462 were working in
Brooklyn.

In 1910, according to the report of the New York State Depart-
ment of Labor, 4,003 women were counted in binderies in New York
City, of whom 3,024 were working in Manhattan and the Bronx,
and 964 were working in Brooklyn.

In 1908-10, according to this investigation, 6,153 women were
counted in binderies in Manhattan alone. For the purpose of veri-
fying our figures, a complete list of binderies investigated in Man-
hattan was sent to the office of the Department of Labor, and through
the courtesy of the commissioner the facts regarding the number
of employes were transcribed from the department's records of
inspections. According to this list there were 5,653 women employed
in binderies in Manhattan. Such a figure may be reconciled with
our own data by bearing in mind the numerous seasonal changes
in the trade. The discrepancy between it and the published report
of the State Department of Labor is due to the fact that bindery
departments of establishments engaged in allied occupations are some-
times numbered under the heading of the allied industry rather than
counted separately.

CHAPTER III
WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

WOM EN stand only on the threshold of the
bindery trade. Their work is chiefly con-
fined to what is called the preparing de-
partment. They fold the sheets by hand or by
machine, insert one within another or gather them
in sequence, paste in pictures or maps, and sew
the sections together with thread, or stitch them
with wire. In pamphlet binding they also paste
on the paper covers, but in edition binderies after
the books have been sewed, women have no further
share in the binding except to lay gold on the
covers for lettering and ornamentation, and to
examine and wrap the completed volumes. Thus
they take no part in the important work of the
forwarding department, which includes all the
processes between sewing and covering, such as the
trimming, rounding and backing, lining up and
gluing, and gilding the edges. In the finishing
department, where the boards for the covers are
cut, "cases" made by covering these boards with
cloth, titles and ornaments stamped, the finished
covers attached to the forwarded books, and the
volumes placed in a powerful press, the only tasks
for women are to lay the gold leaf on the cover be-

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

fore it is stamped, and then to examine and wrap
the books when they are ready for shipping.

These processes differ in different branches of
the trade, and they have changed with the develop-
ment of machinery. Among the women who told
us about their trade were a few who had worked in
binderies in New York in the jo's or 8o's. One of
them had been an apprentice thirty years earlier
in Dublin. "We did only the best of work/' she
said, "Moore's Melodies, Shakespeare, and the
Bible. We bound them in morocco or vellum.
We women did the folding and the sewing and a
little pasting. But now," she added, "the ma-
chines have changed it all. If ye '11 look at a
pamphlet, ye'll see that where we girls used to
stitch with a sharp needle and a linen thread
there's naught but a piece of wire." Neverthe-
less, the wire staple has not taken the place of linen
thread, but rather the industry has widened to
include both types of work. Description of a few
typical binderies will best show the kinds of work
women are doing.

A good illustration of machine methods, used
not for pamphlets but for books, is found in the
work of an edition bindery, an independent es-
tablishment which has neither publishing nor
printing departments, and does no pamphlet or
magazine work. The firm takes orders from pub-
lishers or printers who have no bindery plants.
The sheets are received already printed, and piled
on shelves in the center of the loft. When needed

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

for binding they are placed in a machine which
cuts them to the size required for folding. They
are then carried to the women's department.

The different methods of folding the sheets il-
lustrate changes going on in the trade. They may
be fed into one of the six "point" machines, or
placed in the "automatic" or, very rarely, folded
by hand, the hand tool for creasing the paper being
a bone "folder," not unlike a dull paper cutter.
If the point machine is used, a girl, sitting on a
high stool, feeds each separate sheet into the ma-
chine, placing printed dots on needle-like points
which serve as guides. The machine does the
rest, driving the sheets in a zigzag course down-
ward and toward the side, making a fold at each
turn, and finally dropping the folded sections
neatly into a box standing ready to receive them.
They are then ready for the "knockers up" to lift
out and "jog" straight on a nearby table. If the
sheets are to be folded by the automatic machine,
men employed in the bindery stack them under two
rubber knuckles which push the sheets, one by
one, toward the folding rollers. The only work
for women in connection with this machine is to
see that it folds the sheets properly — a task which
is part of the forewoman's general work of super-
vision, and finally to lift the folded sections from
the boxes into which they are delivered — the
work of young girls who are learners in the trade.
Between the point machine and the automatic is
another invention, the drop-roll folding machine,

WOMEN S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

extensively used in the trade, but not found in this
bindery. In it the points have given place to
automatic gauges, and the women who feed it
need only flick each sheet from the pile so that the
machine can grip it. By dispensing with the
points on which each sheet must be fitted, time
is saved. Obviously the next step was to sub-
stitute rubber knuckles for the hands of women
workers, with an automatic machine as the result.

After the sections are folded, plates or maps must
be pasted in. For this process, hand workers are
in the ascendancy in this bindery because the past-
ing machine is still on trial and only one is used.
Six girls, employed to paste, also hand-fold any
sheets which do not fit the folding machines.

The next task is to gather the folded and pasted
sections to make the volume. These are placed
on a table in separate piles, arranged in the order
in which the pages of the book must follow each
other. The gatherer walks along the row, taking
a section from each pile in order until the book is
complete. Then she compares it with a model
volume, and places her mark upon it in pencil,
thus making herself responsible for any mistakes.
This examination is called collating. Sometimes
the gathering is done by one set of girls and the
collating by another. A gathering machine is on
the market, but it is better adapted to magazines
than to books, and the firm whose shop we are
describing has not purchased one.

All the sewing in this establishment is done by
41

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

machines. Four girls are employed to feed them,
and each has a helper, a learner who cuts the
thread between attached volumes. These tasks
complete the work of the women's department. In
the finishing department, where the covers are
made, ornamented, and attached to the books,
three girls are employed to lay the gold on the
cover before it is placed in the stamping press,
and to clear off the superfluous gold after the title
and ornament have been stamped. Three others
examine and wrap the completed volumes for ship-
ping. In all, about 30 women and an equal number
of men are employed in this establishment.

It is in the magazine branch of the trade that
the development of machines has been most
marked. The methods of work, however, depend
upon the size and shape of the magazine and the
number of copies printed. For small issues it
may not pay to have complicated and expensive
machinery, and books of a certain shape cannot be
handled by the machines now on the market. In
one establishment in New York, four magazines
are printed and bound. Three are the familiar
size of a monthly periodical, about 10 inches long
by 7 inches wide, and one is more than twice as
large. The three small magazines are folded in
the printing department, thus taking out of the
bindery one of the processes usually allotted to
women. When brought from the printing presses
the folded sheets are stacked in piles reaching al-
most to the ceiling. Young girls do this work of

CASE MAKERS

GATHERING AND WIRE-STITCHING MACHINE

(Next in order are the covering machine, the trimmer or cutter,
and girls wrapping and mailing. Note cleanliness, provision for venti-
lation, space, and light.)

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

stacking, which is called "beating up." It is from
these piles that the sections are taken to the com-
bined gathering and wire-stitching machine. The
gathering machine has a succession of boxes, one
for each signature. These are filled in proper
order by girls, and the machine set in motion by
the operator. In this bindery the operator is a
man, although in some very large shops the task
has been assigned to women. The machine takes
a section from each box and when the gathering is
completed passes the magazine along to the wire-
stitching machine which puts in the wire staple
to hold the pages together. This obviates the
necessity of having an operator place each book
under the needle and press the pedal. After
being covered, also by machine, the magazine is
completed.

The fourth magazine, whose pages are much
larger, requires a different method of binding. It
is neither folded on the printing press nor collected
by the gathering machine. Some of its sheets are
fed into a drop-roll folding machine operated by a
girl. One sheet, a two-fold, is folded by hand.
Instead of being gathered one on top of another,
the sections are inserted one within another, with
the cover as the outer sheet. When gathered they
are opened at the center, slipped over "the saddle"
of the wire-stitching machine, and the wire in-
serted. Thus the sections are stitched together
and the cover put on in one operation.

If the publishers of one of the three smaller
43

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

magazines should decide to enlarge the size of
the pages, conditions in this workroom would
be changed. The gathering machine would then
be in operation two weeks instead of three as
at present, additional folding machines and wire-
stitchers would be needed, and the force of hand
folders and inserters would be doubled. This has
actually happened in another magazine bindery.
Thus the apparently simple decision of an editor,
who may never have seen the binders of his maga-
zine, may cause a complete change in organization
in a bindery.

The development of complex machinery, how-
ever, has not done away with the old-fashioned sew-
ing machine, nor with any other of the centuries-old
processes of hand binding. These are still needed
in the rebinding of single volumes for individuals,
for public libraries,* or for magazine publishers
who want the year's issue preserved in one book.
In one of these hand binderies in New York the
force of girls varies from three to 10, according
to the season and the orders received. When
visited in the course of this investigation, the
maximum force of 10 women and about twice as
many men was employed. One girl was "taking
apart " books to be rebound. To "take apart " a
book is to remove the covering and to separate the
sections, one by one, so that they are ready to be

* In the New York public libraries alone, the number of volumes
rebound in a year is 100,000. They are not of uniform size, of
course, and so cannot be handled by machine.

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

sewed again. The pages are then mended or
cleaned if necessary. Another woman was pasting
in guards for plates — the name given to the full-
page illustrations in a book. Eight women were
sitting before the frames which are used for hand
sewing. When the books have been sewed, they
are forwarded and finished by men. As the covers
are tooled and not stamped, the gold is applied
when the tooling is done, and is never laid on in
leaf form by another worker, as in edition binderies.
This establishment is typical of hand binderies in
every respect except in the number of women em-
ployed. Usually not more than two or three
sewers are needed, and they do the general work
of taking apart, refolding, if necessary, pasting,
and sewing.

Thus in hand binderies also the girls' work is
limited to a few preparatory processes. Although
in the art branch of the trade, where the hand
methods already described are used, a few women
have proved that they can successfully and ar-
tistically bind a book from the first process of
folding to the final tooling, they have not yet been
successful enough from the commercial point of
view to create new opportunities for any large
number of women in the trade. The most suc-
cessful of them are emphatic in their warnings that
to earn a living by executing artistic bindings a
woman must possess a rare combination of the
skill of artist, craftsman, and business woman, and
in addition she must work hard, concentrate her

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

efforts, and have enough capital to live on during
the apprenticeship period and the first years of
her career as a bookbinder. Women art binders,
then, are so few in number, and have so much
more in common with the arts and professions than
with the industry of bookbinding, that they cannot
be regarded as representative of the large group of
girls who are trying to earn a living by folding,
or knocking up, or wire-stitching. Nor does it
appear that the art binder is blazing a trail which
is likely to lead these other workers toward larger
opportunities. The typical woman bookbinder is
the one who is at work in the commercial binderies
performing certain tasks known in the trade as
women's work.

Although in one sense these tasks of women are
merely preliminary processes, nevertheless they
are important, and require speed and deftness of
touch. Unless women do their part well the book
may be ruined. In hand folding, the printing on
each page must exactly coincide in position with
that on the other pages, so that when the book is
trimmed the margins may be uniform. Thus, not
the edge of the sheet but the printing on the page
must serve as a guide. Furthermore, the fold
must be neat and true and well creased. To deft-
ness and to accuracy must be added speed. A
college graduate who once went to work in a bind-
ery practiced hand folding for four weeks without
being able to pass beyond the stage of the beginner.

In machine folding, an understanding of hand
46

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

folding is necessary to detect errors in the machine
work, and in addition the operator must have
some knowledge of the working of the machine and
be able to feed the sheets at the right speed to
keep pace with its movement. Very much the
same requirements — ability to detect errors, to
handle the sheets deftly and quickly, and to man-
age a machine — are necessary in the work of
filling the boxes of the gathering machine and in
operating the wire-stitching machine or the sewing
machine. To run the sewing machine, however,
is considered the most skilled work in the bindery,
partly because the books which are sewed are more
valuable than the wire-stitched pamphlet or maga-
zine, and partly because the process is complex.
To touch the back of a section with paste and
then to place it over the revolving arm of the
machine, while picking up the next section, watch-
ing the threads, and throwing aside badly folded
or mutilated sheets, requires the sort of co-
operation of head and hand which cannot be ac-
quired without long practice.

The hand work too must be carefully done.
"We do our own collating," said one girl, who
was employed as a gatherer in an edition bind-
ery, "and we're so afraid of making a mistake.
They used to have collators besides the gatherers,
but they found it was too expensive. When two
girls work together we don't have so big a worry.
If you come to the end of your book and find two
or three sheets over, you wonder what has become

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

of the other sheets. You know you must have left
one out or maybe gathered the same sheets twice.
Nobody wants to buy a book that's got two sig-
natures alike in it. But a girl who had been
gathering a hundred years might make the same
mistake as one that had been at it three months.
When you do one thing all the time you lose the
feeling in your fingers, — you're likely to pick up
two sheets at a time."

" It's a strain in bindery work to be sure not to
make mistakes," said another girl, in describing
the work of the pasters. " A book is easily spoiled.
1 know a girl that put a picture of Longfellow in a
copy of 'As You Like It.' Nobody knew it until
she looked at another girl's book that had a picture
of Shakespeare. She said, 'That doesn't look like
the picture I pasted. He was a funny looking
man, but not as funny as that.' It's bad to make
mistakes like that. If the customer happens to
be cranky, the book comes back." Some knowl-
edge of the contents of books is an asset for a
bindery girl.

Description of the demands made upon bindery
girls or of the conditions under which they work
would be misleading if it gave the impression of
uniformity and permanence in methods. On the
contrary, the irregularity of work and the fre-
quent change in conditions are the characteristics
of the industry which seem to be uppermost in
the minds of bindery girls when they talk about
their trade. Again and again a conversation

WOMEN S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

would begin with such a remark as, " I don't ad-
vise any girl to go into bindery work. It's a very
uncertain trade. You never know when you'll be
laid off. The machines are driving the girls out."

The machine is the great fact which looms large
before the eyes of bindery women when they de-
scribe changes in their trade. They accept its
introduction as they would accept a rainy day,
but to them it often means that someone in the
bindery will be laid off, and the calamity of unem-
ployment is more immediate and real to the
workers than the advantage of better methods
of production to some unknown customer.

A survey of the catalogues of machine companies
brings a vivid realization of the development of
machine binding. The new inventions have been
so fully described in the preceding pages that it is
necessary only to summarize them here. In place
of the hand folder is a self-feeding machine, or else
an attachment on the printing press by which the
process of folding is taken away from the bindery
department.* Inserting may be done by machine.
The pasting machine, a comparatively recent in-

* Recognizing this fact, a resolution was passed by the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Bookbinders, in convention in June, 1908,
which read:

"Whereas, cutting and folding machines are instruments of the
bindery and as such should be conceded to be under the jurisdic-
tion of International Brotherhood of Bookbinders; therefore be it

"Resolved By the delegates of this nth annual convention that
the President stand instructed or a special committee be appointed
to attend the pressmen's convention immediately after I. B. of B.
adjournment to present a suitable set of resolutions before the Inter-
national Printing Pressmen and Assistants' union for ratification."
International Bookbinder, Vol. IX, No. 6, p. 172 (June, 1908).

4 49

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

vention, takes the place of the girls who put in the
"waste" papers, the blank sheets at the front and
back of a volume. The gathering machine, too
recent an invention to have made its way into all
establishments, may rob hand gatherers and also,
in cheap work, collators of their tasks. Wire-
stitching machines and sewing machines are no
longer regarded as innovations, but are well es-
tablished throughout the trade. In many bind-
eries pamphlets are covered by machine. From
Germany comes a rumor of an attempt to construct
an attachment for the stamping press, to do the
work now done by gold layers. Finally, there
is the further development of combination ma-
chines, which perform several operations, such as
folding, inserting, gathering, and wire-stitching.
The first introduction of a new invention is but
the beginning of a long series of improvements.
Manufacturers of machinery usually state in their
catalogues that they will gladly construct any new
attachments which customers may desire. The
chief argument for the introduction of a new ma-
chine is usually that it is labor-saving. To save
labor often means to dismiss a laborer, and behind
the stories of the triumphs of the inventors one
may expect to find the equally human, if less
cheering, stories of the displaced workers. Their
experiences are significant in so far as they illus-
trate the social problem of industrial readjust-
ments. In anticipation of facts about wages,
reference must be made in these illustrations to

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

changes in earning power resulting from changes in
machines.

One girl had been employed in bindery work
three years. As a learner she had knocked up
sections folded by the point machines. When
a vacancy occurred she was given a chance to
operate the machine. It was not easy to learn,
nor could it be done in a day or a week. At first
she received a weekly wage of $4.50 as a learner,
but "advanced rapidly" until she was earning
$9.00 as an operator of the machine. One day
(it was on Good Friday, 1908, she said, remember-
ing the time vividly), an automatic machine ap-
peared in the workroom and proved so successful
that it was used in preference to the point folders.
This girl was transferred to hand folding, which,
she says, is "terrible work." It is hard to earn a
living wage by hand folding; a cent or a cent and
a half is paid for folding 100 sheets if one fold is
necessary. If the sheets are large and heavy
like those in a dictionary the work of folding is
very exhausting, although the pay may be higher.
This girl received 4 cents a hundred for folding the
pages of an encyclopedia, but in spite of her efforts
to work rapidly she could not earn more than $7.00
a week. At 4 cents for folding 100 sheets a
worker to earn $7.00 must fold nearly 3,000 sheets
in a day, or 17,500 in a week. Moreover, each
sheet must be folded three times, and each fold
creased smoothly by drawing the bone folding knife
across the heavy paper. Even this laborious

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

work, however, was taken away from her when
the encyclopedia was finished. The forewoman
thought that there would be no more work for
"point folders/' and advised her to learn some
other process elsewhere. She went to a bindery
where she heard a point folder was needed, but
the machine was not the same make as the one
which she had been operating, and therefore she
was not employed.* After a fruitless search for
work in her trade, she found employment in a
neckwear factory as a learner without wages.
Later, as an experienced operator in this trade,
she earned from $7.00 to $9.00 a week.

A general hand worker in another bindery was
laid off after a year's employment because of the
introduction of a folding machine which could be
fed by a boy. "She walked the streets for three
weeks/' said her mother, "trying to find work/'
Then she became a waitress in a restaurant at
$5.00 a week, plus tips. "There is much better
money in waitress work than in binderies," she
said. "They can't earn good wages in the bind-
ery trade any more since all the machines have
come in. When I told an old bindery hand that I
earned $6.00 piece work the first week I ever did
hand folding, she wouldn't believe me. She said
they used to earn that much years ago, but not
now."

* The style of this last machine was so out-of-date that inquiry at
the office of its maker resulted first in a denial that the firm had ever
manufactured any folding machines. Finally a picture of it was
found in an old catalogue issued by this company.

WOMEN S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

An operator of a point folding machine worked
in a large edition bindery. New inventions were
introduced, and gradually more and more work was
transferred to them. This girl was paid by the
piece, instead of having a fixed weekly wage, and
her earnings were depressed steadily as the machine
which she was operating fell into disuse. She had
learned only two other processes, hand folding and
filling the boxes of the gathering machine. No
gathering machine was used in this bindery, and
the prices for hand folding were not high enough
to yield a living wage. The forewoman offered
to teach her to gather by hand. Gathering is not
easy work. "At first," the girl said, "I was so
tired at night I could hardly keep my eyes open
at supper. I wish I had one of those things you
put on your feet to measure the distance you walk;
I'd like to know how many miles I walk in a day.
There are no boys to carry our work. The folding
machines are at the other end of the bindery, and
we carry the work the distance from one street
to another. That's a block." Her experience in
handling sheets, however, made it possible for her
to learn the new process easily, so that by the end
of six months she was earning approximately
from $10 to J5i i a week, piece work, whereas the
point folding machine had yielded her a maximum
wage of only $9.00 or $10.

A girl who had been employed in the bindery
trade for four years was an expert operator of a
wire-stitching machine in a magazine bindery.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

Her wages, at piece rates, ranged from $10 to $15.
Then a combination gathering and wire-stitching
machine was purchased. She was offered the
work of filling the boxes of the new machine at a
weekly wage of $8. 10 (15 cents an hour). She re-
fused, and secured work in another bindery in the
same building, where the new invention had not
yet been introduced, and where operators of wire-
stitching machines were still in demand. But
her earnings here ranged from $10 to $12, instead
of from $10 to $15.

Another displaced worker was one of 12 gath-
erers who were laid off when a gathering machine
was introduced. She had been employed in the
same bindery nine years, and in the two busy weeks
of the month she had earned $3.00 and sometimes
$4.00 in a day. The machine was purchased in
September, 1904. This girl and two others were
retained for a remnant of hand gathering until the
following January. "We cost the firm money,"
she said, "because there was a boy to carry sheets
for us at $6.00 a week, and we were making good
wages."*

In the slack weeks of the month this girl had
been transferred occasionally to the office of the
bindery. When she lost her position it occurred
to her that she might address envelopes, fold cir-
culars for mailing, and do general office work in

* Four years later the foreman stated that the machine had
saved the firm nearly $30 a day in wages, because of its labor-saving
character and its greater productive power.

GATHERING BY HAND

GATHERING MACHINE

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

some other establishment. Two employment bu-
reaus discouraged her in this ambition for a com-
mercial career, and she finally applied at another
bindery where her special work was to insert one
folded sheet within another. Employment was
steady throughout the month, and her average
earnings were " about as much" as in her previous
occupation.

In another bindery a gathering machine was
installed on trial, and three or four collators were
transferred to the work of filling the boxes. The
machine did not prove satisfactory, and the girls
went back to their hand work. Knowing, how-
ever, that inventors were busily striving to im-
prove their mechanical devices, collators and
gatherers alike were numbering their days, in ex-
pectation of another reorganization of their work.

One gatherer, who had had long experience,
"made a fuss" when the gathering machine was
introduced, and backed by her trade union (an
organization to be described later), she was given
an opportunity to operate it at a wage of $18, the
regular rate paid to men for this work. She was
successful, and the position was assigned her per-
manently. Young girls were employed to fill the
boxes. The other gatherers were obliged to learn
other processes in this establishment or seek work
elsewhere.

Another worker had inserted the sheets of a
weekly periodical, earning a maximum wage of
$14 a week, at piece rates, when working over-

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

time. A machine was introduced which folded,
gathered, inserted, and wire-stitched the maga-
zine. It was operated by a man, and this girl
with a dozen others was laid off. After working
only one week in a pamphlet bindery where both
"night and day gangs" of women were employed,
she left because she was to be transferred to the
night shift. The girls who worked at night " looked
so worn out," she said. Two weeks later she found
work as examiner and wrapper in an edition bind-
ery, with a drop in wages from $14 to $5.00 a week.

The important fact common to all these stories
is that no systematic effort was made to prevent
the maladjustment, which was due not to the in-
efficiency of the workers, but to change in in-
dustrial organization. The displaced employes
were given no chance to prepare for these changes;
the appearance of the machine in the workroom
was usually their first warning that they must seek
other occupations. Yet the changes were not
violent, but merely a gradual development of
mechanical devices. Sometimes weeks passed
before the worker finally left the bindery, after
having been transferred to other processes. But
in the unguided attempt to learn new processes
or find other positions there was much wasted
effort and loss of time.

It does not appear that this loss of time was a
necessary evil. On the contrary, it seems very evi-
dent that solutions were possible, and that the suf-
fering of the [workers was due to the fact that

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

readjustments were matters of chance rather than
of forethought.

Almost as important as the introduction of
machinery is the failure to introduce it. Natur-
ally all the larger establishments use machinery,
although not always the newest models. None
of those employing 50 or more women reported
that they had no machinery, but small establish-
ments frequently lack it. Of 210 binderies in
which this question was asked 174 used some
machine;* 36 firms owned no machines. Only 17
had gathering machines; 90 had folding machines.

Many employers, especially in small binderies, dis-
cussed the use of machinery and gave their reasons
for not introducing it. "The machine changes all
the time," said one, who specialized in one process
only, — numbering checks, bonds, insurance poli-
cies, etc. " I can't risk the capital for a machine
which might change soon again. I'd rather stick
to one line. Then I can give out other processes to
another binder and make one or two cents on the
thousand without any risk. That's why so many
binderies give out their work. The machines
change so fast. I get most of my orders from other
binders."

Another employer said that he had paid
$1,600 for a folding machine but that it was very
seldom used. The girls in the bindery all could
fold by hand, and he preferred to give the work to

* Includes folding, sewing, wire-stitching, gathering, numbering
machines, etc.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

them when they had nothing else to do. " I have
a girl coming on Monday to do hand sewing/' said
another. "We have no sewing machine. I had
an order recently which required the sewing ma-
chine but I could give that part of the work to
another bindery."

One bookbinder said that he would prefer to
use a gathering machine since it would be cheaper
than hand work, but that it would fill half the work-
room and he could not afford the space for it.
Another said that it would not pay to have a
gathering machine, because there would not be
enough work for it. Still another, who specialized
in small orders for blankbooks, said that his work
was chiefly in lots of 1,000 or 2,000, and that the
gauge of the machine would have to be changed
too often to make its use practicable. Nor would
there be enough work to keep the machine in
operation all day. Another bindery had no ma-
chinery for gathering, inserting, or covering.
The foreman said that "it paid better to give this
work to a bindery which had the machines."

Another employer had not bought a pasting
machine because it was "not yet practicable for
anything but small work/' The reason given in
one bindery for having no gathering machine was
that it was "adapted only for long runs," such
as large issues of magazines. Finally, in one of
the largest establishments a magazine is still gath-
ered by hand because, it was said, the numerous
plates in the periodical divide it into more sections

WOMEN S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

than there are boxes in the ordinary gathering
machine. This defect, obviously, would soon be
remedied and the machine installed. Of the 28
gatherers, "five or six of the best would be re-
tained"; the others would be laid off.

In some binderies, of course, the newest ma-
chines are purchased as soon as they are placed on
the market. Their owners have pointed out the
results : more systematic organization of the work,
specialization both in the line of work done by the
bindery, and in the processes assigned to each em-
ploye; and sometimes a decrease in the force of
women employed.

"The machines have cut our force in half," said
one employer. "Seven or eight years ago we em-
ployed 60 or 70 girls. Now we have 30 with just
as large an output." "Last year we had 70 or 80
girls. We bought some machines and now we have
30 or 40," said a forewoman. This sounds like a
contradiction of the census figures showing in-
crease in the size of establishments measured by
number of employes. As a matter of fact, both
the workers' impression of unemployment as the
result of introducing new machines, and the census
facts about growth in numbers following after any
improvement in mechanical methods, are true.
Unemployment comes first and growth later, and
changing processes result in a change in person-
nel in the workroom. These changing processes
might often pave the way for a possible improve-
ment in conditions of employment if more atten-

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

tion were given to the workers' problems during
the transitional period.

One of the most definitely organized workrooms
in New York is owned by a man whose policy is
always to use the newest inventions. " If you
were to tell him there was a new machine on the
market/' said his foreman, "he'd get rid of one he
bought a month ago, and put it in." Twelve
girls are employed, and a definite wage is paid for
each process. One girl is employed to feed the
drop-roll folding machines ; four girls take the
sheets from the automatic folder and jog them
straight, ready for gathering; one fills the boxes of
the gathering machine, to which a wire-stitcher is
attached; one takes the completed books from the
covering machine, which is operated by a man;
and five are employed to wrap the copies for mail-
ing.

In another bindery, where magazines and cheap
paper-covered novels are bound, the use of ma-
chines is largely due to the enterprise of the super-
intendent. Two years ago a great deal of the
work was done by hand. The superintendent
made an offer to the firm to lease the bindery
from them on a fifteen years' contract, buy ma-
chinery, and do their binding at a lower rate than
it had cost with the system of hand work. Mem-
bers of the firm were interested and decided to
buy several machines, which the superintendent
said had paid for themselves within six months.
Following the introduction of machines, a defi-

WOMEN S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

nite minimum rate per hour was attached to each
process except wire-stitching and a small rem-
nant of hand gathering.

The way in which machinery breaks up a trade
into establishments which make a specialty of one
branch of work, has been noted. The other form
of specialization is illustrated in the case of em-
ployes who practice only one process in the work-
room. This sort of specialization does not seem
to be unavoidable. In the bindery described in
the preceding paragraph, "all round" workers are
in demand, and those who can turn from one proc-
ess to another are not laid of? so often as those
who know only one process. But, however great
may be the demand for employes experienced in
more than one line of work, it is the tendency of
machinery to force a worker to practice only one.
If a girl is a "piece worker/' to lose practice means
to lose wages. On the other hand, the machine
will not yield its maximum profit unless it is kept
in constant operation. Thus, while general prac-
tice in all branches of the trade brings to the
worker a very desirable power of adjustment
to changing conditions, nevertheless, the em-
ployer's wish to keep his machines in motion, and
the piece workers' eagerness not to lose the speed
which comes from constant practice, both tend to
organize the bindery force into separate depart-
ments, whose workers are not interchangeable.
The same demand of the machine, that it be fed
with enough work to keep it in constant motion,

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

forces the employer either to specialize in one de-
partment, or to secure more orders and to enlarge
his establishment.

It is obvious that the larger the establishment,
the more successful will be the attempt to keep
every machine in motion throughout the working
day. "Establishments are now so large that a
woman learns only one process," said one superin-
tendent. " For example, she becomes a sewer and
does nothing but that." In the light of this fact,
the census figures* are significant: New York
state had only six more binderies in 1905 than
in 1900 (304 in 1905, 298 in 1900), an increase
of 2 per cent, while the number of wage-earners
was increased by 832, or n.6 per cent. Of the
total number of 7,984 wage-earners in 1905, more
than half, 4,306, were employed in 26 large estab-
lishments. Thus the tendency seems to be to
enlarge the establishment, and this may cause
more pronounced specialization.

On the other hand, the larger the establishment,
the greater the choice of processes for those work-
ers who have had opportunity to learn more than
one branch of the trade. It is easier to be trans-
ferred from one department to another under the
same roof than to seek work elsewhere.

But the workers are not always able to
take advantage of such possible transfers, for
specialization affects also their ability to turn
from one kind of product to another. In a

* See pp. 27, 28.
62

WOMEN S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

large bindery in New York several periodicals
are bound. A girl employed there complained of
the irregularity of her work. "It seems pretty
hard/' she said, "to have to stay home two days
in the week and then have to work so hard the
other days." Her irregular employment was due
to the different methods of binding the different
periodicals. Two weekly magazines are brought
to the bindery on Tuesday and must be mailed on
Thursday. Hand folders and wire-stitchers are
needed to bind them. An engineers' magazine
must be bound Tuesday and Friday. The work
on this is hand folding, gathering by machine, and
sewing by machine, instead of wire-stitching.
Another publication is brought from the printer
on Friday and issued on Monday. It is folded by
machine and wire-stitched. On Friday evening
and Saturday there is no work for a hand folder or
an operator of the sewing machine. Wednesday
is the busiest day in the bindery. Two magazines
must be completed for the mailers on Thursday.
Overtime is usual on that day. This girl could fold
by hand, fill the gathering machine, and operate
the sewing machine. She worked from Tuesday
to Friday. She reported that at hand folding
she could earn 75 cents or $i .00 a day. For filling
the gathering machine the rate was 18 cents an
hour, or $1.53 a day. But neither of these pro-
cesses lasted six days in the week so that her
earnings during the previous three weeks had
been $3.19, $7.75, and $3.21. If she had been

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

steadily employed she could have earned from
$5.00 to $8.00 a week as a hand folder, or $9.09
for filling the gathering machine. Had she un-
derstood machine folding or wire-stitching she
might have worked every day. Not lack of work
to be done, but inability to turn from one process
to another was responsible for the irregular
employment of the specialized workers in this
bindery.

Moreover, when different kinds of orders de-
mand different processes, the specialist must be
prepared to face not only change in machinery,
but change in the size or character of her employer's
orders. Recently a magazine which had been
gathered by machine was enlarged by doubling
the size of its pages. Thereafter a force of in-
serters was employed and there was no work for
gatherers. In another bindery a girl who had
been employed to operate the sewing machine in
the book department was transferred to the maga-
zine department where her work was to look over
sheets folded by machine and to fill the boxes of
the gathering machine. Her pay was reduced
from $10 to a wage varying from $5.00 to $7.00, ac-
cording to the kind of work assigned to her. This
transfer from work on one product to another re-
quiring different processes was due to the fact that
much of the book work formerly done by this firm
depended upon orders from a large publishing house
which had recently organized its own bindery.

If we trace the history of the folding or the
64

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

gathering machine we find that with the develop-
ment of automatic feeding devices the tendency is
to dispense with the work of women and to em-
ploy men merely to care for the machines. This
change is not a displacement of women workers by
men, but a reorganization of the force due to the
substitution of rubber fingers, or other automatic
feeders, for women workers.

What then is the meaning of the census figures
cited in the last chapter, which tell us that in 1870,
30 per cent of the bookbinders were women and
70 per cent were men, while in 1900, 5 1 .6 per cent
were women and 48.4 per cent were men? This
rapid shifting of the relative proportion of men and
women would lead the statistician to suppose that
in this trade was to be found a perfect example of
the displacement of men by women. Behind the
figures one seems to read the story of a struggle in
which men have been losers. Yet the comments
of workers and employers, and the conditions
observed in binderies, contradict this conclusion.
Evidently more facts are needed to jthrow light on
the census figures.

In the absence of any data as to the number of
men and women employed in different branches
of the trade in 1870 and in 1900, the answer must
be, in part, merely hypothetical. Judging by the
present tendencies in the trade, the cause of the
change in the proportion of men and women would
appear to be two-fold. It has been pointed out
that the share of women in hand binding is rela-
5 65

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

tively small, that they do only the folding, gather-
ing, and sewing, and that the numerous processes
of forwarding and finishing have been usually in
the hands of men. Hence, in the early days of
the trade when hand binderies predominated, men
were in the majority. In the development of the
industry, two important changes took place.
With the introduction of machinery many pro-
cesses of forwarding and finishing were omitted,
while others were combined in one simple operation,
thus lessening the relative number of men needed
in edition binderies. At the same time, the greatly
increased production of pamphlets which need
only be folded, gathered, stitched, and covered,
enlarged the demand for the processes always done
by women. Thus it would appear that without
any shifting of the line between men's work and
women's work, the proportion of women steadily
increased between 1870 and 1900.

If during the three decades between 1870 and
1900 there was a struggle between men and
women, with a transfer of processes to women,
it seems to have left no trace on present trade con-
ditions. We found instances of this kind of trans-
fer so scattered as to seem to be the exceptions to
prove the rule. One girl, who had learned the
trade in a small bindery, had had practice in almost
every process of men's work. Finally, however,
she learned gold laying, and confined herself to
that branch of the trade. Another girl, employed
in an edition bindery, "sets up" several folding

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

machines; in other binderies the same work is
done by men. One girl cut leather corners for
blankbooks; when she was laid off she could not
find work because in other establishments boys are
employed for this process. A forewoman in a
bindery told of a man and his daughter who had
worked together "casing-in" books, a process
usually done by men. ''They made good money/'
she said, "but now the union is strong enough to
keep the women out." One girl /had been em-
ployed to "pinch" books and to use the round
cornering machine. These things are usually
done by men, but the establishment was small
when she began, and girls did some of the men's
work. Another girl described with some amuse-
ment the way in which she had pasted canvas on
boards at 30 cents per hundred, taking the work
from a man who had been earning a rate of 40
cents. In one large edition bindery a woman
cares for some of the machines with the skill of a
trained machinist.

But these are exceptional cases. The possi-
bility of carrying on more processes than at present
fall to their share in the trade does not appear
to be a burning question among the majority of
women. "The women would just say, 'That's
men's work,'" replied one employer, when asked
the attitude of his women employes regarding an
extension of their opportunities. One girl, who
had fed a ruling machine, a task requiring no skill,
was asked if she had ever wished to learn to operate

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

the machine. "Oh, no," she said, "ruling is gentle-
men's work. There are no lady rulers. The gen-
tlemen have their hands in the ink pot all day,
and no lady wants to get her hands inked like
that." "A woman can learn to feed the ruling
machine in a day," another explained. "She
doesn't need to bother with managing it." "The
smell of the glue is awful," said another, speaking
of covering books. "It's a man's work." Still
another, describing a machine which could fold,
gather, and insert, said, "It's a man's work,"
although each of these processes formerly had
belonged to women.

Nor do employers appear to have given much
thought to the question. One, an art binder,
said that the work of women was restricted only
by the men's trade union, and that women were
capable of doing men's work. He added, how-
ever, that a woman would find it difficult to work
fast enough to make her employment profitable in
processes commonly done by men. Another, the
superintendent of an edition bindery, said that
the tasks of women were restricted by their lack
of capacity, not by the rule of any organization;
they would not have strength to handle the ma-
chines which the men operate. Another, a job
binder, asserted that he employed women for tem-
porary work only, because they were not strong
enough to lift books and "be generally useful."
" If you employ a woman, you can't give her any-
thing but sewing," said another job binder, "while

PRESS AND PLOW MACHINE
(The primitive way of plowing or cutting)

TRIMMING MAGAZINES
(The new method)

WOMEN'S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

a man can turn his hand to other things." On
the contrary, the superintendent of a magazine
bindery declared that there was no process in his
workroom which could not be done by women. " I
could put a girl to work operating the cutting
machine/' he said, "if I paid her $18 a week. I
know two big binderies where women are operating
the gathering machines and earning $18 a week.
1 could have a woman tend the large folding ma-
chine if I paid her the same as the union scale for
men. I don't know why I don't, except that I
see no good reason why I should."

In the course of the inquiry, instances of the
transfer of women's work to men or boys were
found to be more numerous than the reverse. Men
were at work operating folding machines and
sewing machines, feeding the ruling machine, and
folding and sewing by hand. Boys were found
emptying the boxes of the folding machine, sewing
by hand, cleaning off the books after they had
been stamped, and operating the wire-stitching
machines. The development of automatic feeding
devices for the folding machine and the invention
of gathering machines and covering machines have
caused these processes also to be transferred to men
in many binderies. Indeed, the census of 1905
showed that, in New York City, in the five years
since 1900,* the number of bindery women had not
increased so rapidly as the number of men, and

*Compare Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Manufactures,
Part II, p. 621, and United States Census, 1905, Manufactures,
Part II, p. 770.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

that although women still outnumbered men they
were losing ground. A woman who had fed a
point folding machine, and lost her position be-
cause of the introduction of the" automatic " tended
by a man, remarked, "A man is paid according to
what he knows, and not according to what he
does." It is certainly true that the tender of a
large complex machine, fitted with all the devices
for feeding itself, must be one who knows rather
than one who does. Women without mechanical
training have small chance of securing the work
of managing the new machines.

In view of the changes that have been de-
scribed, the future of women's work in binderies
is problematical. It is the opinion of some bind-
ers that women could be trained to carry on
artistic hand binding in all its departments, but
it seems unlikely that the best opportunities in
art binding would be open at first to any but
women of the professional type. In machine
binderies, it would seem to be largely the lack of
opportunity to acquire mechanical skill which
prevents women from adjusting themselves to new
inventions and retaining their former place in
the trade. Nevertheless, the changes are much
less rapid or revolutionary than some of the re-
marks of workers and employers would indicate,
and the hardships of the workers could be avoided
if more attention were paid to their problems.
Machines have appropriated more processes in mag-
azine binderies than in any other branch of the

WOMEN S WORK IN THE BINDERIES

trade, but even in establishments where the new-
est inventions are found women workers are still
needed, although often they are not the same
women who formerly worked there. The pro-
cesses have changed, and the personnel of the
force usually changes also with the reorganization
of the work. But in spite of the tendencies re-
vealed by such occurrences a view of the trade as
a whole indicates that the number of women em-
ployed in the industry will probably continue to
increase.

CHAPTER IV
WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

OF all the complex factors to be considered
in describing a trade, the most vital is the
relation of the wage scale to the main-
tenance of wholesome living conditions among
the workers. To discuss women's wages merely
as a phase of trade problems, unrelated to the life
of the worker outside the workroom, is to miss the
real significance of the conditions of their work.
For this reason, two important subjects, wages
and home conditions, are brought together for
discussion in this chapter.

Many difficulties are encountered in investigat-
ing wages. The private investigator, without ac-
cess to payrolls, is handicapped in securing facts
from employers. Variations in methods in differ-
ent establishments, and changes from day to day
in the same workroom, are obstacles in the way of
getting clear-cut, definite information. "We have
no fixed wage scale; it all depends on the girl/'
is a remark heard frequently when employers are
asked what wages are actually received by women
employes. "Some girls can make 50 cents and
others $2.50 a day. There is no uniformity."

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

The method of paying by the piece rather than
by a fixed weekly rate also obscures the real facts.
The crowding of work at one season, and employ-
ment only for part time, or no work at all, at
another season, produces great confusion in esti-
mating the bindery girl's income.

For these reasons general statements about the
range of pay in a given establishment have not
proved so dependable a source of information as
the case study of the workers interviewed. The
records of these workers show the length of their
employment in bookbinding, and the weekly wage
received in each place of employment, including
the first wage, the last, and the maximum. If
they were piece workers the range of their earnings
is recorded.

The three methods of payment found in bind-
eries are called, in the trade vocabulary, piece work,
time work, and week work. Piece workers are
given jobs on which a certain price per 100 sheets
has been set; the number produced determines
the earnings. Time workers are paid by the hour,
at a different rate for different processes. A girl
may be a piece worker during part of the day and
then become a time worker. Week workers re-
ceive a regular wage by the week, which does not
vary with variations in the amount produced.
Obviously, however, no week worker could retain
her place without producing a satisfactory mini-
mum output.

The processes of work and the size of the estab-
73

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

lishment seem to be the most important factors in
determining the method of payment. When a
worker turns frequently from one process to an-
other, or when the same process is applied to many
different kinds of products, then the piece work
method is not convenient. "We have to pay
numberers by the week," said one employer;
"piece work would keep a bookkeeper busy cal-
culating the rate and pay for each job." "My
girls are all week workers," said the owner of
a small establishment. "They can't make any-
thing on piece work unless there's plenty of one
kind." Job binderies, therefore, handling books
of all sorts and varieties, singly or in small num-
bers, usually adopt the time or week methods of
payment; so also do employers of small forces of
general workers. But for binders of large editions
of books handled by the thousands, all identical,
the piece work system affords an accurate test of
each worker's earning power. The firm thus avoids
payment for work not done. As time and week
workers' wages are usually lower than the maxi-
mum possible earning of piece workers, many
bindery women prefer the piece-work system.

The workers interviewed were asked what wage
they had last received in the bookbinding trade,
and their answers, classified in Table 6 according
to length of experience, show the bindery girl's
chances for increase in earnings. Of the workers
considered, 1 33 were paid by the week or time, and
60 were piece workers.

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

TABLE 6.— WEEKLY WAGES OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN

BOOKBINDING BY YEARS OF EMPLOYMENT

IN THE TRADE*

WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN
EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING

TOTAL

<•**

S £

Weekly Wages

ill

|£

Q 8

§**

Under $5.00

19.7

$5.00 and under $6.00

. .

11.4

$6.00 and under $7.00

11.4

$7.00 and under $8.00

ii 9

$8.00 and under $9.00

. .

15.0

$9.00 and under $10.00

9-3

$10.00 and under $12.00

17.1

$12.00 and under $15.00

4-2

Total . . .

'93

100.0

Average weekly wages

$4.30

$6. 1 8

17-71

$8.8 1

$10.30

$7-22

a Of the 201 women interviewed, 8 did not supply information.

More than half of these workers received less
than $8.00 a week. Only 21 per cent, or about
one in five, received $10 or more. Measured by
average wages, the group who have been employed
three or four years earn only about $3.00 more
than those who have been at work less than a
year. The average wage of the group employed
between five and ten years is $8.8 1, only about a
dollar more than for those who have had three to
five years' experience. For those who have worked

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

in binderies ten years or more, the average is
$ 1 0.30, with $15 as an upper limit.

As to the wage received within the first year, ad-
ditional evidence is secured by tabulating all these
workers' reports of the first wages received when
they entered the bookbinding trade, as shown in
Table 7.

TABLE 7.— WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WOMEN EMPLOYED

IN BOOKBINDING DURING FIRST WEEK OF

EMPLOYMENT IN BOOKBINDING *

Earnings During tloe First Week

WOMEN WHOSE EARNINGS
WERE AS SPECIFIED

Number

Per Cent

Nothing .
Under $3.00
$3.00 and under $4.00
$4.00 and under $5.00
$5.00 and under $6.00
$6.00 and under $7.00
$7.00 or over .

4
23
58
70
20
17

2.1

11.9
30.0
36.3
10.4

8.8

•5

Total

'93

1 00.0

a Of the 201 women interviewed, 8 did not supply information.
The week workers numbered 180 and the piece workers 13 of those
reporting on this point.

Nearly half, 44 per cent, of these learners in
binderies received less than $4.00. Four-fifths re-
ceived less than $5.00 a week. Of the group of
four who received no wages, one learned eight
years ago, and the others twelve, fifteen, or forty
years ago, at a time when the custom of not pay-
ing learners was more general than at present.

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

We know of no bindery where this custom now
prevails.

The group of 18, or 9 per cent, who earned
$6.00 or over the first week, ought to be more fully
described. Only one was as young as fourteen
when she began work in the bookbinding trade.
Six were fifteen years old, six were seventeen, two
were nineteen, and three were over twenty-one.
These older girls had had experience in other occupa-
tions. On entering the bookbinding trade seven
worked in magazine binderies, doing unskilled work,
in which strength is the chief requirement; three
were employed for temporary work, folding a
holiday pamphlet; two were exceptions who se-
cured work in hand binderies through influential
friends; two did heavy work in edition binderies;
one was a gold layer's apprentice; and three folded
pamphlets. A comparatively high wage paid to
inexperienced girls usually means that the process
demands no skill, and no real opportunity will be
given to learn or to advance.

Of 2 10 employers interviewed regarding learners,
65 refused to engage them, and three made no
statement on this point. Table 8 shows the wages
paid to learners, as stated by 133 of the 142 firms
willing to employ them, classified according to the
minimum age requirement in the bindery.

In 34 of the 60 binderies in which fourteen-
year-old girls were employed as learners, the be-
ginning wage was less than $4.00. Of the 52 in
which learners must be at least sixteen, only 14

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

pay a minimum wage of less than $4.00, and 38
pay $4.00 or more. This indicates the superior
earning capacity of the sixteen-year-old girl in
this trade, even though she be a learner, and gives
statistical support to the remark of an experienced
worker: "It's the young girls who spoil a trade.
They come in and work for very low wages, and
sometimes the boss takes them in preference to
the older girls, who can't work for so little." An
analysis of wages paid to learners in different
branches of the trade shows that edition and
pamphlet binderies pay higher wages to learners
than they receive in blankbook binderies.

TABLE 8.— BINDERIES EMPLOYING WOMEN AS LEARN-
ERS BY WEEKLY WAGES OF LEARNERS, AND
THE MINIMUM AGE AT WHICH THEY
ARE EMPLOYEDa

Minimum Age at which
Learners are Employed

BINDERIES IN WHICH THE WEEKLY
WAGES of LEARNERS ARE

All
Bind-
eries

$2.00
and
Less
than
$3.00

$3.00
and
Less
than
$4-00

$4.00
and
Less
than
$5.00

$5.00
and
Less
than
$7.00

Minimum age 14 years .
Minimum age 16 years .
Minimum age not stated

31
13

22
10

16
3

60
52

Total . . .

133

vxi 1 1^** LJIIIUI,! \\*& \^ni piw_y i ng iv*o,i iiti &f y uiu uvt oujjjJijr lUIVIlUA

tion as to wages of learners.

The wages received by the group of workers
interviewed (see Table 6) may be compared with

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

the census statistics of 1905 based on payroll tran-
scriptions of the earnings of 2,010 bindery women
in New York state. The census figures also afford
a basis for comparison of the wages of men and wo-
men in this industry. Furthermore, they show the
comparative wages received by bindery women
and by the large group of women in all manufac-
turing industries.

TABLE 9.— COMPARATIVE WEEKLY EARNINGS OF MEN
AND WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING AND
OF WOMEN IN ALL MANUFACTURING IN-
DUSTRIES. NEW YORK STATE, 1905*

Weekly Earnings of Em-

BOOKBINDING TRADE

WOMEN IN
ALL MANU-

ployes

Men

Women

FACTURING
INDUSTRIES

Number considered

2,143

2,010

108,083

Per cent earning —

Less than $3.00 .

0.9

3-5

6.5

$3.00 and under $4.00

3-i

!()..

10. 1

$4.00 and under $5.00

5-5

I7.8

150

$5.00 and under $6.00

6.0

I6.3

15-5

$6.00 and under $7.00

7-4

144

14.7

$7.00 and under $8.00

5-7

10 5

11.4

$8.00 and under $9.00

7-3

8.0

8.5

$9.00 and under $10.00

7-6

5.8

6-4

$10.00 and under $12.00

12.9

4.8

6-4

$12.00 and under $15.00

15.0

2.1

3-7

$15.00 or over

28.6

0.7

1.8

Total

1 00.0

Average weekly earnings .

$12.09

$6.13

$6.54

a United States Census, Bulletin 93, Earnings of Wage-earners,
Manufactures, p. 150. 1905.

According to this table, nearly 70 per cent of
women bookbinders received less than $7.00 in a

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

week when the largest number were employed, the
time for which census enumerators were instructed
to copy the payrolls. Only 7.6 per cent, or about
one in 14, received $10 or more. Compared with
this information, the facts about the women whom
we interviewed show that they have a higher earn-
ing capacity than the larger group recorded in the
census. This may be explained as due in part to
the fact that the census figures include bookbinders
outside New York City in other parts of the state
where both wages and cost of living are lower.
Furthermore, the census shows actual earnings in
the week under consideration, not wage rates, and
some workers may have been counted who had not
worked six days. Nevertheless, as it was a week
when the largest force was at work, the probability
is that the great majority were employed full time,
and it is fair to compare their earnings with the
wages received by our group in a normal week.
The difference may be due in part also to the fact
that the group of girls who gave us most complete
information may have been above the average in
intelligence, length of experience, and earning ca-
pacity. It is obvious, at least, that our data con-
cern women who are certainly not below the level
of their fellow- workers, and their experiences can-
not be challenged as giving an unfair view of
women's work in the trade.

According to the census figures, the earnings
of women in binderies are lower than those of
women in all manufacturing industries, grouped

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

together, in New York state. The average for all
industries is $6.54 compared with an average of
$6. 1 3 for women bookbinders, and the chances of
earning $10 or more are fewer for bindery women
than for women in all trades taken together.

1,200

1,211

800

400

1,200

800

400

Men Women

Earning under

$6.00

Men Women
Earning $6.00
and under $10

CHART III. — MEN AND WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING IN NEW
YORK STATE, BY WEEKLY EARNINGS

The difference between the earnings of men and

women in binderies is pictured graphically in the

accompanying chart. Of the women, 54 per cent

earn less than $6.00 a week, while only 16 per cent

6 81

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

of the men receive such low pay. On the other
hand, only 8 of every 100 women reach a wage of
$ioormore, as compared with 5 7 of every loomen.
The women are not doing the same work, but it is
significant that the standard of remuneration in
their departments is about half the standard for
men's work.

These group figures do not take account of differ-
ences in different establishments, of changes in
rates, of deductions by fines, or of losses through
irregular employment. In making comparisons of
rates of pay in different establishments, possible
differences in grade of work must be carefully noted.
It is fair, however, to compare the rate per hour for
such comparatively uniform work as filling the
boxes of the gathering machine. Some binderies
pay 1 5 cents an hour for this work, some 1 7^ cents,
and some 18 cents. A difference of 3 cents an hour
in a forty-eight-hour week amounts to $1.44, not a
small sum in the eyes of a low-paid worker. Infor-
mation given both by workers and employers indi-
cates also a difference of 50 per cent in the rate for
hand folding in different binderies, one employer
paying i cent per 100 sheets, folded once, and
another paying a cent and a half. One worker who
was employed in several binderies in quick succes-
sion said that for a large "two-fold" she received 2
cents per 100 in one bindery, and 3 cents per 100
in another, the size and grade of paper being the
same. For folding a circular, "four-fold and cut,"
she received 5^ cents per 100 in one bindery, and

FOLDING BY HAND
(Inner room. All light artificial)

FOLDING AND GATHERING
(Hand folders on platform; machine folders and hand gatherers below)

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

cents in another. For gathering and collating
magazines she said that the rate in one bindery
was i cent per 100 signatures, and in another
three-quarters of a cent.

A girl employed five years in the trade explained
one cause of this difference. "Employers often
try to get the girls to do a piece of work at less
than the regular rate," she said, "and sometimes
the girls don't know what the regular rate is.
It's a mean thing to do, because when an employer
figures on an order he doesn't figure on a reduced
rate of pay. He figures on the regular rate and
then any reduction he's able to get from the girls
adds to his profit. Once our boss gave the girls
a job at 1 8 cents a thousand that the bindery I'd
just left had been paying 22 cents for. I told the
girls about it and they said they couldn't do the
work for less than 22 cents. The boss gave right
in. He knew he was putting too low a price on
the work." "The mean thing about that shop/'
said one girl, "is that when they see you're making
more than a certain amount, they cut the rate."
" I worked very hard," said another, employed in
a very different type of bindery, "but I tried to
keep to a schedule, because if one girl turns out
too much in a day, they're apt to cut the rates."

Wages may also be diminished through fines
and charges, although in the bindery trade these
are not usually very serious. Various punitive
methods are adopted to compel the workers to be
prompt in the morning. Time-clocks in many

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

binderies act as automatic witnesses, and the pun-
ishment may be a scolding or a fine. In some bin-
deries, if a girl is one minute late she is "docked"
for fifteen minutes, or if she is more than fifteen
minutes late she is docked for a half hour. Others
have been fined for an hour's absence if late five
minutes, or they have been locked out until noon.
In some cases the charges exacted indicate a petty
meanness which is exasperating to the workers.
On what grounds, for example, can an employer
be justified in charging his employes 2 cents a
month for having the toilets cleaned? In some
establishments the girls pay 5 cents every two
weeks for ice water in summer. " It's very little,"
said one girl, "but it's mean of the firm not to
supply it. We have to bring our own towels and
soap, too."

Very few firms seem to charge for "spoiled
work." The penalty is more likely to be loss of
position. One learner, however, earning $4.50,
had been fined 25 cents for spoiling some sheets;
on another occasion she was fined 1 5 cents. An-
other case in the same bindery was that of a
little girl who had to pay 75 cents for a book
she had spoiled.

Most serious of all losses is the cut in yearly in-
come due to lack of work in dull season, or loss of
time for other reasons. An accurate determina-
tion of yearly earnings is impossible unless the
workers keep accounts, but the following estimate,
made after very careful consideration of all the facts

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

on our record cards, throws light on the workers'
losses. The whole subject of irregular employment
will be more fully discussed in the next chapter.

TABLE 10.— APPROXIMATE YEARLY INCOME OF WOMEN
EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING, BY AGESa

Yearly Income

Women
Under 18
Years

Women
18 Years
and
Under 21

Women
21 Years
or Over

All
Women

Under $100
$100 and under $200
$200 and under $300
$300 and under $400
$400 and under $500
$500 and under $600
$600 and under $800

8
7
5

i
4

4
4

i
6
13

7
13

21
27

Total . . .

Median income

$207

$325

$400

$308

a Data are presented only for women who have been wage-earners
a year or more. In making up the table, earnings from all occupa-
tions engaged in during the year have been considered, since many
bookbinders are forced to seek work outside their trade when
bindery work is slack.

These figures are estimates rather than exact
records. The table shows, however, the median
yearly income, half the workers earning less and
half earning more. A closer analysis of the figures
on which the table is based shows that for girls
under eighteen the median is $207, for girls of
eighteen to twenty-one years, $325, for those
twenty-one years of age or over, $400, and, for
the whole group considered, $308. If work were
steady the average weekly wage of $7.22, which

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

is recorded for the girls interviewed, would amount
to a yearly income of about $375. But the esti-
mate of yearly earnings shows that even though
bindery girls find other work in dull season the
median yearly income from all their occupations
is about $308, indicating a loss of more than $50
in twelve months. This is not a small loss when
the fact is realized that very few bindery girls earn
$500 or more in a year.

Surprising, indeed, is the complacency with
which many persons regard the low wages of work-
ing women. They believe that the problem con-
cerns only the welfare of the individual girl, and
that if she can live at home, merely supplementing
the family income, her scanty earnings need cause
no concern. Such easy-going thinking ignores
the fact that the low standard of remuneration
of the large proportion of the community's work-
ers which women now represent must inevitably
lower the industrial standards of the whole com-
munity. Nor does it occur to them that the low
wages of women are a prime cause of poverty, pre-
venting wholesome and decent living in thousands
of families which depend wholly or in part upon
women's earnings.

The girl who lives at home is typical of an over-
whelming majority of bindery girls. Even a
cursory description of these family groups shows
how important is the gainful employment of
women in its relation to the maintenance of the
household.

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

TABLE 11.— FAMILY STATUS OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN
BOOKBINDING*

WOMEN WHOSE STA-

Status

TUS is AS SPECIFIED

Number

Per Cent

Living at home —
As head of family

•5

With father as head of family .
With mother as head of family15

107
59

55-4
30.6

With husband as head of family

1.6

Other relative as head of family

11.9

Total living at home

»93

1 00.0

Boarding

Grand total

199

a Of 20 1 women interviewed, 2 did not supply information,
b Father dead or away from home.

Thus 1 93 of the 199 bindery girls here considered
lived at home, but in only 55 per cent of the fam-
ilies was the father the head, while in 30 per cent
the father was dead or away from home and
the direction of the household devolved upon the
mother. In 12 per cent the bindery girl lived
with some other relative and in three cases she was
a wife, not only managing her own home, but con-
tributing to it her weekly wages. Only six were
boarding alone away from any relatives.* Even
when the father is nominally the head of the house-
hold,! ne is not always contributing to the family

* The census shows a slightly larger percentage of boarders, 8 per
cent. Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Special Reports, Statis-
tics of Women at Work, pp. 266, 270.

t In our interviews with bindery women, we emphasized especially
the subject of trade conditions. Information about living conditions
was not secured in every case, but the number of families investigated
on this point constituted a large majority of the households of the
bindery girls interviewed. They numbered 120 households in which
were found 150 women bookbinders. The data in the following
pages concern primarily these 120 households.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

support. In 48 families the father was dead, in
seven he was not living at home, because of illness
or because he had deserted the household, while
in five he was at home and was regarded as the
head of the family, although illness or age pre-
vented his working. In only half the households
of the bindery women interviewed was the father
a contributor.

The occupations of the fathers who were at work
represented a great variety of employment. Four
had their own business, — one of these was a barber,
one a shoemaker, and two were peddlers. The larg-
est group, 53, were not "independent" workers but
wage-earners, including printers, machinists, build-
ers, tailors, bookbinders, workers in a spring fac-
tory, a painter, brass worker, electrician, last
maker, glass setter, bronze worker, copper worker,
hardware worker, ship builder, pipe layer, piano
worker, silk weaver, presser, candy maker, and
a packer of meats. In addition to these work-
ers in factories and mechanical pursuits, this
wage-earning group also included drivers and
coachmen, watchmen, lumber yard workers, jani-
tors, longshoremen, day laborers, a waiter, motor-
man, switchman, public bath attendant, stable-
man, butcher, baker, and a bookkeeper. The
variety of occupations represented is the most
noteworthy feature of the list. It includes skilled
and unskilled, responsible and unimportant, per-
manent and casual. The increasing importance of
the work of women in wage-earners' families is

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

not confined to any one group of occupations of
the traditional heads of households.

Information about wages of fathers was secured
in comparatively few cases, but such facts as were
learned are interesting as illustrations. The best
paid worked in connection with the public baths at
$21 a week. A machinist earned $16. A weekly
wage of $15 was reported by two drivers, a
switchman on a street railway, a hardware worker,
and an electrician. Two other drivers and a bind-
ery worker were in the $12 group. A longshore-
man received $i i and a worker in a bronze factory
$10. If $900 be the minimum living income for a
"normal" family of husband, wife, and three or
four young children in New York,* then only
one of these men was earning a living sufficient
to support such a household. But in his case the
family was larger than this normal standard and
his daughter's wages in a bindery were needed.
These are but illustrations, but they corroborate
the statements made in many other families as to
the necessity for the contributions of the women
to the support of the households.

Nearly all the 120 households depended upon
the earnings of more than one worker. In only
one family was the woman bookbinder the only
wage-earner. In 84 households the family in-
come was secured by the combined contributions

* Chapin, Robert Coit: The Standard of Living among Working-
men's Families in New York City, p. 246. Russell Sage Foundation
Publication. New York, Charities Publication Committee, 1909.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

of at least three workers, and of these, 29 families
had four wage-earners, 10 had five, and one had
as many as six. The record cards reveal the fact
that 33 households had no men wage-earners,
but depended entirely on women. The men con-
tributors numbered three in three households, and
two in 33, while one man was at work in each
of 51 families. The women wage-earners num-
bered one in each of 32 families, two in 55, three
in 25, and in eight households groups of as many
as four women workers were contributing.

In one of the families two bindery girls support
themselves and their mother, who is an invalid.
Formerly they worked in the same establishment,
and both were frequently laid off at the same time.
It was too serious to risk having all the family in-
come cut off in that way, and they changed their
positions, believing that if they were working in
different binderies they would not both be unem-
ployed in the same weeks of the year. One is a
general worker earning $8.00 a week. The other
is an assistant forewoman receiving a wage of
l9.oo. "Very few week workers get more than
$9.00 in bindery work/' the latter said. As a
gatherer, paid by the piece, she has earned as much
as $13, but both she and her sister say that they
prefer smaller pay and steadier work. Piece work-
ers, they think, are more liable to be laid off in
slack season.

The same preference for "smaller pay and stead-
ier work" was expressed by the mother of a girl

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

who knocks up in an edition bindery, earning
$5.00 a week. "She pays the rent and more/'
said the mother. "She supports the family.
The father earns very little, only the food. I
don't want her to be a piece worker. You order
things, and then there's no work and you can't pay
for them. I'd rather she should have small pay
steady."

One of the most significant facts learned in these
visits to the households of bindery women, was
the revelation that it was not only the young
daughters who had gone out to work pending the
founding of their own homes, but that these groups
of women wage-earners, who were contributing to
the family support, included also the mothers. In
more than a third of the families it was necessary
for the mother not only to do her duty as house-
hold manager but also to earn money by working
at home or in factories. Nor is this necessity
present only in families in which the father is not
living. For example, in a Bohemian family of
six, father, mother, and four children, the mother
is a cigar maker, and the oldest daughter, aged six-
teen, and her sister, aged fifteen, are bookbinders,
one earning $3.50 and the other $4.00 a week.
Two younger boys are in school. The father is a
polisher in the hardware trade, earning $i 5 a week.
"The work is pretty steady," said his wife, "but
you know yourself a man can't support a family
of six on $15 a week." She earns $14 a week
working in a factory so near home that she can

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

get lunch for the youngest children. She also
does most of the family sewing. She hires a
woman to do the washing, and the two girls
iron the clothes in the evenings. The family
spends $i .80 a week on carfare. The mother says
that every month she thinks that in a few weeks
she will not have to work in the factory any longer,
but after the $16 is paid for the rent, and addi-
tional sums for the insurance, and the trade union
dues, and the lodge money, there are still so many
things that the family needs that she feels bound
to continue.

A gold layer, earning $10 a week, is a married
woman, whose husband has been too ill to work for
two years. They live in one furnished room, hav-
ing been forced to give up their flat and sell their
furniture when the husband could no longer work.
Occasionally they go out for their meals, but more
often the wife cooks on a gas stove in their room.
She was interviewed in April, 1911. She had been
laid off two weeks the preceding summer, and for
the preceding four months the bindery had given
the gold layers only five or five and a half days'
work in the week. " I haven't made a full week's
pay since January," she said.

The pressure of the high cost of living, or the
illness or death of the head of the family, has in
many other cases compelled the wife to earn
money to help support the household. The
wage-earning mothers in the 120 families studied
numbered 45, while in 66 households the mothers'

COVERING MAGAZINES BY MACHINE

GATHERING MACHINE

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

contribution was through housework at home rather
than through paid employment. In eight fami-
lies the mother was dead, and in one she was not
living at home. Of the 45 who contributed to
the family income, 14 did so by keeping boarders
or lodgers, seven by janitor service to pay the
rent, and two by factory work at home, one sew-
ing and the other preparing hair goods; several
of them combined more than one of these means
of livelihood. There were 31 who worked for
wages outside the home, one as cook in a private
family, one in the laundry of a hospital, 18 at
day's work, washing, or cleaning, or as house-
keepers or office cleaners, and 1 1 in factory work
including bookbinding, dressmaking, cigar making,
rubber manufacture, the packing of groceries, and
the making of paper boxes.

One of these working mothers is only seventeen
years old. Her husband is in prison. She and
her seven weeks' old baby live with her mother
and young sister in one room on the top floor
of a dreary tenement in Cherry Street. The
sister has just gotten work as a learner in book-
binding at $4.00 a week. The young mother's
earnings are $6.00 a week. After her hard and
dusty day's work in the bindery she returns home
to nurse her baby.

In one family, the mother, who is a widow, and
three daughters are all wage-earners. The mother
and one daughter work in paper box factories,
and the other two in binderies. The mother says

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

that she has always worked in the paper box trade.
"It used to be a good trade, but machinery has
spoiled it. I used to make $10 a week easily, but
now we're lucky if we make $1.25 a day." Every
member of the family faces the uncertainty of
slack season, but employment in different factories
lessens the risk of simultaneous reductions in in-
come. When the working day in the factories is
over, they return home to cook dinner, wash the
dishes, clean the three rooms of their flat, and do
their washing. "It's hard to work all day for
$4.50 a week and then wash your clothes at night,"
said a bindery girl in another household.

Often it seems as though the work open to mar-
ried women or widows was the hardest and most
poorly paid of all the tasks done by wage-earning
women. Because of their household duties they
are less free than their daughters to choose their
occupation. One woman, who has two daughters
in the bookbinding trade, fifteen years ago was
left a widow with four children. During those fif-
teen years she has worked as an ironer in the laun-
dry of a New York hospital, and has never had a
day off with pay since she has been employed there.
All day long she stands at her work until now she
wonders whether the section of the floor upon which
she has stood so long will not wear through to the
ceiling below. The hours, however, are shorter than
in many factories, and so she endures the hardships
of her work. Her children are now grown, so her
employment away from home all day does not

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

endanger their welfare as it did when they were
younger. Even now, however, it is difficult to
get the housework done. The only time for
it is before seven in the morning or after six at
night.

The fact that the mothers must be wage-earners
in occupations which take them away from home
is more serious when there are children in the fam-
ily. That bookbinders' households are not groups
of adults, but that they have little brothers and
sisters whom they are helping to support, is shown
by facts about the number of children under four-
teen. In more than three-fifths of the families there
are children under fourteen, and in more than a
fourth these young children number three or more.
That in many of these households in which the
children are not yet past school age not only
young girls but their mothers must share in earn-
ing the necessary income, is an indication of a
problem of increasing importance in the com-
munity.

No attempt was made in this investigation to
study the standard of living as it would be re-
vealed in the expenditures for food, clothing, re-
creation, education, and other important items of
the family budget. But data about the amount
spent in rent and the number of rooms compared
with the number of persons in the household are
tangible indications of the economic status of the
families of bindery girls.

These data show a rather wide range of expendi-
95

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

ture for rent, with six families paying less than $10
a month, and five paying $25 or more. The greater
number are included in the groups having a
monthly rent bill of $ 14 to $20. That bookbind-
ing is an urban industry, and that not only in New
York but in other sections of the country bindery
girls' homes are, therefore, subject to the congested
conditions and high rents of city life, is proved by
the census figures already quoted* showing that,
of all women employed in binderies in the United
States, 82.2 per cent live in the larger cities, while
only 17.8 per cent are found in small cities and
country districts. New York, Chicago, and Phila-
delphia claim 43.9 per cent or more than two-
fifths of all the bindery women in the United
States. Although Manhattan has a bindery dis-
trict where the majority of establishments are lo-
cated, the trade does not draw its workers from
any one section. The homes of the 201 girls in-
terviewed were scattered about the city, 55 below
Fourteenth Street, 52 north of it on the east side,
and 42 on the west side, three in the Bronx, and
49 in Brooklyn.

As our investigation of binderies was confined
to Manhattan we did not seek out bookbinders
living in Brooklyn, and therefore these figures
probably do not show the full proportion living
there. That many bookbinders live in Brooklyn
is confirmed by a comparison of the occupa-
tional statistics (house-to-house enumeration) and

* See Table 3, p. 31, and Chart II, p. 32.
96

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

the manufacturing statistics (factory enumera-
tion) of the census of 1900, showing that of all
bindery women in Greater New York 50 per
cent live in Brooklyn, and only 5 per cent work
there. The fact that the bindery district sur-
rounds the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn
Bridge, and that within a two and a half or five-
cent carfare zone is a wide choice of flats in
Brooklyn, doubtless accounts for the proportion
who live there and work in Manhattan.

That every effort is made to economize in rent
is indicated by the number of persons to the room
in these households, as shown in Table 12. The
groups are so arranged as to indicate the num-
ber of families, conforming to the generally ac-
cepted standard of "less than one and a half per-
sons per room." A larger proportion per room
means overcrowding.

TABLE 12.— PERSONS PER ROOM IN FAMILIES OF WOMEN
EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING*

Families in

Which the Num-

Persons per Room

ber of Persons

per Room is as

Specified

Less than one and one-half persons

One and one-half persons and less than two persons

Two persons and less than three persons

Three persons and less than four persons

Four persons

Total

lOQ

aOf 120 families investigated, n did not supply information.
7 97

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

The number of rooms here counted includes not
only the bedrooms but the kitchen and any avail-
able sitting room space. It would seem that an
apartment with only as many rooms as there
are members of the family would be abnormally
crowded. But even gauged by the much less com-
fortable standard of one and a half persons per
room, 46 of 109 households of bindery girls were
crowded to that degree or worse. This is a signi-
ficant sign of an inadequate standard of living in
many of these families. Even the combined ef-
forts of so many wage-earners appear to be insuffi-
cient to secure wholesome living conditions.

That the contribution of bindery women toward
the maintenance of their homes is not casual but
permanent is indicated by the number of years
they have been wage-earners.

TABLE 13.— LENGTH OF EMPLOYMENT OF 201 WOMEN
EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING

WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING

WHO HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED EACH

SPECIFIED LENGTH OF TIME

Length of Time Employed

In any Occupation

In Bookbinding

Number

Per Cent

Number

Per Cent

Less than i year
i year and less than 3 years
3 years and less than 5 years
5 years and less than 10 years
10 years or more

19
39
50
59
34

19
25
29
17

35
57
37
49
23

17
29

25
ii

Total ....

201

100

201

100

WAGES AND HOME CONDITIONS

That nearly half, 46 per cent, have been wage-
earners five years or more, and that only 10 per
cent have been at work less than a year, points to
the fact that the earnings of these women have
become an indispensable part of the family income.

The ages of the workers give indirect evidence
of their length of service. Only 18 of the 200
who stated their ages were under sixteen, 37
were between sixteen and eighteen, 75 between
eighteen and twenty-one, 40 between twenty-one
and twenty-five, 28 between twenty-five and
thirty-five, and two were in the fifties. The cen-
sus figures regarding the 4,086 bindery women
counted in New York in 1900 indicate that 41 1, or
10 per cent, were under sixteen; 2,440, or 60 per
cent, were between sixteen and twenty-five, and
1,235, or 30 per cent, were twenty-five or over.*
Thus both the census figures and the data about the
group interviewed in this investigation show that
the largest group are under twenty-five years of
age, 70 per cent according to the census, 85 per
cent according to our records. Nevertheless, the
proportion continuing to work beyond that age
is sufficiently large to warn us against sweeping
conclusions about the universally short term of
service of wage-earning women.

Data about these girls' mothers have shown that
a woman must often continue to work for wages
after her marriage. Before marriage, the book-
binders' earnings are of great importance to their

* Twelfth United States Census, 1900. Occupations, p. 640.
99

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

families. Practically every bindery girl inter-
viewed gives all her earnings to the family each
week, receiving back again the sums needed
for carfare, lunches, and incidental expenses. A
weekly income of $8.00 a week hardly suffices
to support a single person in New York City
and is a scanty allowance when part of it must
be used to help support children and other de-
pendents in the household. Yet more than 50 per
cent of the bindery women are receiving a smaller
wage than that amount, and in dull season their
income is still further reduced.

IOO

CHAPTER V
IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

WOMEN in binderies in New York have
experienced all sorts and conditions of
irregular employment. They know the
meaning of general industrial depression, affecting
alike all the occupations in the community. They
have met the changing demands for books at dif-
ferent seasons of the year. They have tried to ad-
just themselves to the intermittent employment
which characterizes the binding of magazines.
They have been forced to learn new operations or
to seek other occupations when changes in ma-
chinery have resulted in a reorganization of the
methods of work.

Nor does there appear to have been any system-
atic, successful effort either to prevent irregularity
of employment or to lessen its evils. In the book-
binding trade, as well as in other occupations, this
is one of the most baffling problems of industry.
It concerns both men and women. It reduces
earnings and lowers the standards of living. It
checks the fullest development of efficiency, de-
moralizing the man or the woman who must meet
the problem year after year under conditions so
varied that the worker cannot measure with cer-

101

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

tainty the evils "which the season may bring forth.
It disorganizes workrooms and forces employers
to engage new hands many times in the course of
twelve months. Definite plans have been sug-
gested, and in some cases successfully tried, in
the effort to solve other industrial problems. For
instance, it is not impossible to show how the work-
ing day may be shortened, how the standard wage
may be maintained, nor how workers may be
trained in skill. But in answer to the questions
involved in preventing irregular employment, one
can cite only more or less vague theories and no
comprehensive or successful experiments.

To measure this irregularity is almost as diffi-
cult as to suggest any practical means of prevent-
ing it. A worker may be unemployed or under-
employed. She may be walking the streets look-
ing for a job. Or she may be a piece worker, sitting
idle in the factory and losing the wages which she
might be earning if work were at hand. Or she
may find another position in another occupation
at a lower rate of pay, and in making the change
she may lose several working days, in addition to
the reduction in her earning power due to the neces-
sity of adjusting herself to new processes. To re-
call how long she was idle twelve months ago or
how much time and money she lost waiting for
work in the factory, or how much it cost her to
change her occupation is a feat of memory which
would be difficult for anyone to accomplish.
Nevertheless, the gravity of the problem and the

102

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

difficulty of securing full information make it the
more important to collect all the data on the sub-
ject as they appear in the census and in the records
of this investigation.

In New York state in 1905 the census enum-
erators* recorded 9,233 as the greatest number of
bookbinders and blankbook makers (both men
and women) employed in 304 establishments dur-
ing the year. The least number was 6,645, show-
ing a difference of 2,588 for the two periods. In
other words, 28 per cent of the maximum force
had disappeared from the payroll at the time of
minimum employment. The federal census also
publishes the figures showing the numbers of men
and women employed in each month in 908 book-
binding establishments throughout the United
States, but these facts are not given separately for
each state or city. They show that the month of
minimum employment for men is July, for women,
April. The largest numbers of men and women
are employed in December.!

The figures in the census can be regarded only
as a general index, for in them no account is
taken of different seasons in different branches of
the trade. As in many occupations, the Christmas

* United States Census, Special Reports, Manufactures, 1905.
Part I, United States by Industries, p. 99.

t These are the only reliable, official data which we have found
regarding the time lost by bindery women. In 1890 and 1900 an
attempt was made to record1 the length of unemployment of every
wage-earner enumerated on the household schedules. The statis-
tics have very little value, because the term "unemployed" was not
always clearly understood by the enumerator, nor were the facts
accurately reported by the wage-earner or the member of his family
who gave information

103

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

rush increases the force of employes or lengthens
the working day. Binders of holiday editions of
the latest novel, art binders preparing Christmas
presents, lithographers binding calendars, and

TABLE 14.— MAXIMUM NUMBER OF WOMEN EMPLOYED
IN BOOKBINDING IN MANHATTAN, BY THE SEASON
OF GREATEST ACTIVITY OF THE ESTABLISH-
MENTS IN WHICH THEY ARE EMPLOYED*

Season of Great-
est Activity of
Binderies

WOMEN EMPLOYED IN
EDITION, PAMPHLET,
AND JOB BINDERIES

WOMEN
EMPLOYED
IN BLANK-
BOOK
BINDERIES

TOTAL

WWb Em-
ploy less
than 60
Women

Which Em-
ploy 60
or more
Women

Num-
ber

Per
Cent

Num-
ber

Per
Cent

Num-
ber

Per
Cent

Num-
ber

Per
Cent

Winterb
Summer
Quarterly
Monthly
"According to or-
ders"
"Steady"

741
15

28
166

431
4'7

24
23

M33
145
70
470

235
1,215

35
4

'4
38

396

121
313

2,270
170
98
636

787
1,945

2
II

Total . .

',798

100

3,268

100

840

100

5,906

100

*Of the 5,949 women employed in the 210 establishments in-
vestigated, 43 were in establishments which did not supply informa-
tion.

b The period of greatest activity is generally before Christmas.

pamphlet binders issuing holiday advertisements
for firms in many other industries, look forward to
a harvest of orders beginning in the early autumn.
Magazine binders count on larger issues in the
three months preceding Christmas. Besides the

104

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

busy period occurring annually, magazine binderies
have also a monthly or weekly rush preceding the
date of issue, followed often by days of unemploy-
ment. Spring fashion books, school books, com-
mercial registers, seedsmen's catalogues, and tele-
phone directories have well defined seasons. Thus
the census figures cannot show the actual fluctua-
tion of the force in any one branch of the trade
during the year, for they are made up of the com-
bined statistics of these various branches, whose
rush periods occurring at different times balance
each other. The results of our inquiry regarding
the period of maximum employment in different
types of binderies are shown in Tables 14 and 15.

TABLE 15.— BOOKBINDING ESTABLISHMENTS IN MAN-
HATTAN. BY SEASON OF GREATEST ACTIVITY*

Season of Great-
est Activity
of Binderies

NUMBER OF EDITION,.
PAMPHLET, AND JOB
BINDERIES

NUMBER

BLANK-
BOOK
BIND-
ERIES

TOTAL

Employing
less than
50 Women

Employing
50 or more
Women

Num-
ber

Per
Cent

Winter b
Summer
Quarterly
Monthly
"According to or-
ders"
" Steady "

i
i
9

30
37

2
I

3
13

2
14

41
72

Total

2O4

100

a Of the 210 establishments investigated, 6 did not supply informa-
tion.

b The period of greatest activity is generally before Christmas.
105

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

The binderies having "steady work" number
35 per cent of the total reporting, and employ
33 per cent of the total number of bindery
women. Of the women employed in edition,
pamphlet, and job binderies having a force of
50 or more women, ^38 per cent work in estab-
lishments whose season is said to be steady, while
of those who work in binderies having a force of
less than 50, only 23 per cent are reported to be
steadily employed. In some cases, however, this
report of "steady employment" means that the
busy season is not definitely marked. It does not
mean always that the total force is employed on
full time throughout the year. Winter is the
busy season for 41 per cent of the women employed
in small binderies, for 35 per cent of those em-
ployed in larger establishments, and for 47 per
cent of the blankbook makers. "According to
orders," manifestly an evidence of an uncertain
season, is the report for 24 per cent of the women
at work in small binderies. Of the whole group,
winter is the busy season for 38 per cent of the
bindery women; summer for 3 per cent; quar-
terly for 2 per cent; and monthly for 1 1 per cent.
"According to orders" is the report for 20 per cent
of the binderies, large and small, employing 1 3 per
cent of the women workers. The proportion of
workers laid of? in dull season is shown in Table 16.

Of the maximum force of women employed in
the busy season, 76 per cent, according to the state-
ments of employers, are at work in the dull season.

1 06

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

In different groups of binderies this proportion
varies. In blankbook making 90 per cent of the
maximum force are at work in slack season, while
in edition, pamphlet, and job binderies the mini-
mum force is only 63 per cent of the maximum in
those establishments employing less than 50 women,
and 8 1 per cent in those employing 50 or more.
Blankbook binderies appear to have the steadiest
seasons. In edition, pamphlet, and job binderies,
unemployment is most serious in the smaller estab-
lishments employing less than 50 women.

TABLE 16.— PROPORTION OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN

BOOKBINDING "LAID OFF" IN DULL SEASON

IN ESTABLISHMENTS IN MANHATTAN a

Kind of Bindery

Binderies
for which
Informa-
tion was
Secured

NUMBER OF
WOMEN
EMPLOYED

WOMEN "LAID
OFF" IN DULL
SEASON

Maxi-
mum

Mini-
mum

Num-
ber

Per Cent

of Maxi-
mum

Edition, pamphlet,
and job binderies
employing
Less than 50 women
50 or more women
Blankbook binderies
Temporary bindery
departments

118
37
53

1,832
3,208
860

1,148
2>597
773

684
61 1

37
'9

10
IOO

Total . . . .

223

5.940

4,518

1,422

a Of the 280 binderies visited, 33 were only temporary depart-
ments, and 37 supplied in general inadequate information. Thus in
the general discussion only 210 binderies have been included. In
this consideration of seasons, however, it has been thought essential
to include as far as possible all the binderies visited. Fifty-seven
did not supply information on this point.

107

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

These figures indicate that the demand for
workers so fluctuates that one of every four bin-
dery women needed in the busy season is super-
fluous when the book market is dull. When
orders grow brisk again employers rely largely on
advertisements to increase their force. Thus the
advertising columns of the newspaper considered
in relation to other data on this point are a
source of information regarding irregular employ-
ment. They indicate also the processes in which
changes are most frequent.

TABLE 17.— PROCESSES MENTIONED IN ADVERTISE-
MENTS FOR BINDERY WOMEN IN NEW YORK
WORLD, ON SUNDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS, FROM
JULY 1, 1908, TO JUNE 30, 1909

Process of Work for Which
Workers were Wanted

Times each
Process was
Mentioned

Hand folding 311

Wire-stitching 102

Machine folding (point folder, drop-roll, etc.) and

knocking up 86

"General," "all round," "experienced," "generally

useful," etc 76

Numbering, perforating, paging, check-end printing 65

Hand gathering 58

Hand and bench sewing (full and half bound work) . 47

Feeding ruling machine 46

Silk-stitching, looping, stringing cards ... 43

Inserting (hand) 37

Hand pasting 34

Tipping, covering, paper siding 32

Learners 31

Forewomen 26

Wrapping, examining, mailing, shipping ... 23

Machine sewing (including "cutting off") . . 20

Collating 14

Gold leaf laying 12

Head-trimming i

Total . 1,064

108

Box GIRLS

(Behind them is an automatic folding machine from which they lift
the folded sheets)

MEN CASE-MAKING AND GIRLS LABELING

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

Hand folders, who more often than others are
employed for temporary work, face frequent
changes. They exceed any other group of workers
in the number of times they are mentioned in ad-
vertisements. Wire-stitchers, often engaged for a
small order of pamphlets, come second. Least
frequently mentioned* are gold leaf layers, whose
work requires care and skill in handling such pre-
cious material; collators, whose task is a respon-
sible one; and workers experienced in machine
sewing, which is considered the most highly skilled
process in a bindery. 1 1 would appear that workers
skilled in these processes are not easy to secure,
and are therefore less liable to be discarded in dull
season. The months of greatest demand and the
branches of the trade which most frequently adver-
tise in the newspapers are shown in Table 18.

A further tabulation of the total advertise-
ments,daily and Sunday, which appeared in the last
six months of the period covered in the preceding
table, showed that they were inserted by 1 14 firms,
including some who needed workers for temporary
bindery departments in establishments engaged
in allied work. One firm advertised 45 times, and
one 37. Of the remainder, 37 inserted one to five
advertisements ; 4 1 , five to i o ; 20, i o to 1 5 ; 8, 1 5 to
20; and 6, 20 to 30. Of the total the largest num-
ber appeared in March, probably due to the fact
that general industrial conditions were better in
the first six months of 1909 than in the latter
part of 1908. Magazine and pamphlet binderies,

* Except head-trimming, a process in a job bindery.
109

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

•

aiO™

£D£
u.

00 >.

t*s

*-> CQ

41
111

O .-

ill

CT\

— rr\ t^OO 00 O VO

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

including bindery departments of printing estab-
lishments, were responsible for 344, or 46 per
cent, of the advertisements.

Seasonal contraction of the force, however, is
not the only cause of irregular employment in
bookbinding. Girls may leave positions or be dis-
charged when the largest number of orders are
on hand, and thus irregular employment is greater
than would appear from a study merely of the
bindery season as it fluctuates with the changing
demand for books, pamphlets, and magazines.
Other factors contributing to unemployment and
to frequent changes in jobs are shown in a tabula-
tion of the reasons for leaving 353 of the positions
recorded in the trade histories of the group of
workers interviewed.

If we separate those reasons which obviously
grow out of trade conditions, we find that they
form a group of 73 per cent of the total. Illness
may or may not be due to trade conditions.
"Didn't like it," or "disagreement" indicates
a minor form of maladjustment which might have
been avoided. They are responsible for 9 per
cent of the changes. "Worker unsatisfactory"
is either a problem of education or an indi-
cation of the need of better methods of finding
the right place for the right worker. The
apparent unimportance of changes in machinery
as a reason for loss of work is interesting in
view of the many comments made on this sub-
ject by workers. It is probable that it was the
indirect cause in more cases than appear in the

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

TABLE 19— REASONS FOR LEAVING POSITIONS IN

BINDERIES AS STATED BY WOMEN EMPLOYED

IN BOOKBINDING

Reason for Leaving Position

Number

Per Cent

Slack season a
To advance, — higher wages or better work a .
Firm failed, moved, etc. a
Dissatisfied with conditions of work a (night work,
bad air, standing at work, carrying heavy

146

43
30

41.4

12.2

8.5

6.5

"Didn't like it"
Illness
Disagreement
Strikes, rules of union, etc. a
To return to former position or occupation
Worker unsatisfactory ....
Changes in machinery a
Other reasons (employer's violation of factory
laws, or to marry, or other reason)

15
15
ii

9
8

5-1
4.2
4.2

2.3
9.1

Total

353

IOO.O

POSITIONS LEFT
FOR EACH SPECI-
FIED REASON

a Reasons obviously due to trade conditions.

table. As already pointed out in Chapter III, the
introduction of a new machine may result first of
all in a general reorganization with a temporary
transfer of workers to other processes. Often the
workers find that their wages are less in these other
lines of work and leave for that reason, or because
the changed conditions result in a gradual reduc-
tion of the force. While the change in machinery
is the real cause of this loss of position, it may not
be the immediate reason appearing in the tabula-
tion.

112

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

For all the reasons listed, jobs tend to be of short
duration, and workers are likely to drift from
bindery to bindery. To measure the length of
employment in one position, a tabulation has been
made of the duration of the last position preceding
the date of the interview.

TABLE 20.— LENGTH OF TIME FOR WHICH WOMEN

WERE EMPLOYED IN LATEST POSITION IN

BOOKBINDING*

NUMBER OF WOMEN EMPLOYED

SPECIFIED LENGTH OF TIME IN

Time in Position

/ /7C/

Present Position, if

Position

Worker is still in
Her First Position

Left

in the Trade

Less than i month .

i month and less than 3 months

3 months and less than 6 months

6 months and less than 9 months

9 months and less than 12 months

Total less than i year

i year and less than 2 years .

2 years and less than 3 years

3 years and less than 5 years

5 years and less than 10 years

10 years and less than 15 years

Total

149

a Of 201 women interviewed, 6 did not supply information.

Thus 87 of the 149 who are no longer in their

first positions in bookbinding, held their last job

less than one year. Yet, as already noted, the

majority had been in the trade much longer than

8 113

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

one year. Only 17 per cent of those interviewed
have had less than one year's experience in the
trade, 29 per cent have worked in binderies one
to three years, 18 per cent three to five years,
25 per cent five to ten years, and 1 1 per cent
ten years or longer.* Obviously this experience in
many cases has included more than one bindery,
or more than one occupation. The number of
positions (including those in other occupations as
well as bookbinding) in which these girls have
been employed in so short a time as twelve months
preceding the interview, is shown in Table 21.

TABLE 21.— NUMBER OF POSITIONS* HELD IN PAST YEAR

BY WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING AT

TIME OF INVESTIGATION b

Number of Positions Held

Number

Per Cent

1 .... . .

2 .... .

3 .... .

4 .... .

$ or 6 ... .

7 and less than 1 1 . . .

Total

l63

100

NUMBER OF WOMEN WHO

WERE IN SPECIFIED NUMBER

OF POSITIONS IN THE PAST

YEAR

a In determining the number of positions, all occupations, whether
in bookbinding or in some other trade, have been considered.

b Of 20 1 women interviewed, 29 had not been wage-earners dur-
ing the entire past year and 9 did not supply information.

Of the 1 63 women included here, all of whom have
been wage-earners a year or more, 80, or nearly

* See Table 13, p. 98.
114

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

half, have worked in two or more establishments
in the past twelve months, and a few have changed
from one employer to another four times or more.
For the worker such frequent change, whether it
be due to fluctuating seasons, uneven demand for
labor, a casual attitude toward work, or any other
cause, industrial or personal, means inevitably a
loss of income. The first phase of the question
to be considered is the loss of time between "jobs."
This was determined for 176 positions.

TABLE 22— PERIODS FOR WHICH WOMEN EMPLOYED
IN BOOKBINDING WERE IDLE AFTER LEAV-
ING POSITIONS

Time Idle

POSITIONS AFTER LEAVING
WHICH WOMEN WERE IDLE
FOR PERIODS SPECIFIED

Number

Per Cent

"No time"
Less than i month
i month and less than 2 months
2 months and less than 3 months
3 months or more

52
16

37
28

9
7
'9

Total

,76

100

The worker who finds another place within a
week is likely to say that she has lost "no time/'
Although this was the statement made of more
than a third of the positions, it is probable that
in many of these cases a day, at least, was lost.
In more than a third the loss was one month or
more.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

It is not only between positions that a worker
loses time. She may be "laid off" for two or
three weeks, or may work only part of the time
without severing her connection with the estab-
lishment. The vital fact to determine in a study
of irregular employment is the total loss of time
and wages suffered by the worker through as long
a period as her memory can be trusted. This is
information which can be secured from no one ex-
cept the worker. The payrolls in an establish-
ment would give data only during her period of
employment there, without showing whether she
was employed elsewhere, or whether she was out
of work the rest of the year. Yet, as already ex-
plained, to secure such facts accurately from the
workers is exceedingly difficult, especially as the
more irregular the employment the more strenu-
ous is the task required of the memory. This
difficulty is not peculiar to a study of women in
the bookbinding industry. A search through lit-
erature on the subject reveals the lack of case his-
tories of the workers which would show, as no other
source of information can, the effect of irregularity
on the worker's income. For this reason data
about even a few cases will be of value.

Of the bindery girls interviewed 29 had not
been wage-earners during the entire past year,
and 52 could not state the length of unemployment
accurately enough for tabulation. Table 23 con-
tains the records of the remaining 120.

116

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

TABLE 23.— TIME LOST IN THE PAST* YEAR FROM ALL

CAUSES BY WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOK-

BINDINGb

Time Lost

Women Who Lost
the Time Specified

"No time"
Less than i month
i month and less than 3 months
3 months and less than 6 months
6 months or more

14
36
36
18
16

Total reporting

120

a Preceding date of interview.

b Of the 20 1 women interviewed, 29 had not been wage-earners
during the past full year, and 52 did not supply information.

Less than one in eight reported no time lost for
any cause, while three in 10 reported a loss of
one to three months, and more than one in four
lost three months or more. The causes of the lost
time were about as varied as the reasons already
cited for leaving positions. An estimate of lost
time from slack season alone was secured from 148.
This group in Table 24 is larger than that in the
preceding table, because not all of these 148 could
give an account of the time out of work for all
other causes, but they did make convincing state-
ments about the weeks when they were "laid
off — slack/' a phrase which has become very
familiar to investigators.

Of the 148, who reported, a little more than a
fourth had lost no time because of slack season.
Twenty-five per cent could only say that they
had suffered from this cause and could not

117

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

count up the days when they had worked part time,
or when they had been out of work between jobs, or
were laid off for temporary periods. The others
made definite estimates of loss, — 18 per cent less
than one month, 15 per cent one to three months,
9 per cent three to six months, and 5 per cent six
months or more. These were not uninterrupted
periods. They were the sum of scattered days or
weeks out of work through the year.

TABLE 24.— TIME LOST IN PAST* YEAR BECAUSE OF

SLACK SEASON, BY WOMEN EMPLOYED IN

BOOKBINDINGb

Time Lost

Women Who Lost the
Time Specified

"No time"
Less than i month ...
i month and less than 3 months.
3 months and less than 6 months
6 months or more ....
Some time lost, length could not be estimated
(part time, etc.)

40
27

14
8

Total reporting

148

* Preceding date of interview.

k Of the 20 1 women interviewed, 29 had not been wage-earners
during the past full year, and 24 did not supply information.

The periods of employment between these slack
days were not in binderies only. Thus even these
losses are less than they would have been had not
many bindery girls found work in other occupa-
tions. Only 37 per cent of those interviewed had
not worked in any trade except bookbinding, 28 per
cent reported one other occupation, while 35 per

118

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

cent had been employed in two or more other in-
dustries in the course of their careers as wage-earn-
ers. Some of these had worked in as many as
five or six other lines of employment. The list
of other occupations is so varied that it reads like
a page from the census. Bindery girls have been
errand girls, cash girls, saleswomen, domestic
servants, waitresses, nurses, clerical workers, tele-
phone operators, laundry workers, dressmakers,
milliners, straw sewers, and machine operators in
other trades. Nor is this list complete. Their
employment in processes of work more or less
closely allied with bookbinding includes slip-
sheeting in printing offices, folding patterns,
sample mounting, stationery work, sorting and
packing cards, and pasting calendars.

The statements of a few of the girls in the group
whose records appear in these statistics may em-
phasize further the facts about irregular work.
An inserter employed in a magazine bindery
earned $12 one week, $12 the next, had no work
and no pay the third, and earned between $8.00
and $9.00 the fourth. She said that this was the
story of a typical month's work. Another, a
learner, when asked to tell what her earnings had
been in the past four weeks said, "a little over
$4.00 the first week, a little more than $5.00 the
second, $5.92 the third, and I got $4.65 this week.
Sometimes I work two full weeks in the month but
not often. We're not often laid off, but a week or
two in the month we're on part time and go home

119

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

at 2 or 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon." An-
other's record reads, "Two weeks ago made
$9.00, last week $1.50; had only two days' work.
About two and a half full weeks of work in the
month, not more."

"I earned $5.40 this week; last week I earned
$9.00," said an expert feeder of the drop-roll fold-
ing machine in an edition and pamphlet bindery.
She had been employed in the bookbinding trade
six years. "Work is dull in the bindery now.
There are signs up saying that we must not stop
work until the whistle blows. They make strict
rules like that because it's slack and they want an
excuse to lay us off, but we're all behaving ourselves.
My brother who works in the same place told me
to go every day whether there was work or not,
because otherwise I might lose my place. Last Sat-
urday I knew I should not make a cent, but I went
just the same and paid my carfare." She said that
it was impossible to tell how much time she had lost.
During two weeks in the month a magazine was
being bound. At other times their work depended
on whether a catalogue was • being issued or a
novel was ready for the binder. This girl com-
plained of another cause of loss, — lack of prompt-
ness in repairing machines when they are out of
order. If the operator is a piece worker, every
hour of delay reduces her earnings. She has had
this experience several times recently. When con-
ditions were favorable and work plenty, her usual
earnings were $9.00 in a week, but she could not

120

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

even estimate her yearly income, so much did it
vary from year to year, — not because of variation
in her personal efficiency but because of unforeseen
changes in the condition of the book market, or in
the prosperity of the firm employing her.

This girl was a skilled worker in the trade. For
less expert bindery girls conditions are more
serious. Since hand folding has become a casual
task, necessary only for certain types of work for
which machines are not adapted, the hand folders
are drifters in the trade. One of them had been
employed several years in binderies but had never
learned to operate a machine. Hand folding had
been her principal work. As a learner she had
worked six months in an edition and pamphlet bind-
ery, hand folding, straightening sheets, inserting,
gathering, and mailing. Then she was "laid off —
slack." Her subsequent trade history is made
up of many brief jobs. She worked two or three
months in an edition bindery, folding by hand,
earning $7.00 a week; one month in a pamphlet
bindery, $6.00 or $7.00; two months in a magazine
bindery, $7.00; six months in a printing establish-
ment, hand folding, inserting, gathering, with a
piece-work wage varying from $7.00 to $9.00;
three or four months binding pamphlets, $8.00
to $9.00; returned to the printing establishment
twice in the year, once for two months, and once
for eight months, earning $7.00 to $9.00; worked
one year in another printer's bindery, earning $8.00
to $9.00 until the firm failed. After losing two to

121

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

three months of work, she got a job folding pamph-
lets by hand but stayed only one day, leaving be-
cause she was obliged to work on a raised platform
less than six feet from the ceiling, and carry
sheets from the bindery below it. In every
other case, except when the firm failed, the
reason for leaving was "work slack/' "I would
never advise a girl to go into bindery work/' was
her comment, already familiar to investigators by
frequent repetition. "It's awfully unsteady, and
anyway, there are too many in it already."

Another group of girls have not wandered from
bindery to bindery in this way. One of these has
been employed in the same bookbinding establish-
ment eight years, and is now a collator there.
With the exception of a candy factory where she
stuffed dates one week just after leaving school, it
was the only place where she had ever worked.
Every summer while work was slack she has taken
a vacation of two weeks, receiving no wages during
that time. She says that in other binderies col-
lators earn a dollar more a week than she is re-
ceiving. " But it's worth the extra dollar to me,"
she said, "not to be in a place where they rush
you." Still, she is sorry that she has stayed so
long. "They think more of you if you change
more." During the preceding year she lost a
great deal of time because of the widespread in-
dustrial depression. For several months there
had been no work on Saturday morning, and the
loss even of this half-day cost her nearly 70 cents

122

COLLATING

GATHERING MACHINE

(Man operating and women filling the boxes and taking out the
gathered books)

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

of her week's pay and reduced her weekly earnings
to about $7. 30.

A girl sometimes prefers to accept a lower wage
than is paid elsewhere, if she is reasonably sure of
continued employment. One girl has been em-
ployed eleven years in the same bindery, "setting
up" machines. She says that it is a machinist's
work and that she could earn higher wages in
another bindery, but she is afraid to leave lest
another position might not be as steady. Legal
holidays are the only time lost in the year. An-
other has been employed four years and has never
lost a day except holidays. Even they have cost
her a week's wages in a year. She is receiving
only $7.00 a week for operating a wire-stitching
machine, work for which a wage of $9.00 or $10 is
paid in some binderies, but she prefers lower pay
and steadier work.

The irregular employment of an expert folder
who helps to bind a commercial register issued
quarterly, is pictured in Chart IV. She worked
in the bindery from February i to March 7, and
was laid off through March to the middle of May;
worked from the middle of May to July, laid off
two weeks in July ; worked from August i to Labor
Day, laid off Labor Day to the middle of Novem-
ber; worked from the middle of November to
January 15. "It would have been better," she
said, "to have had $6.00 a week steadily instead
of earning $8.00 so irregularly."

Loss of earnings is not the only result of irregu-
123

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

lar employment. The discouraging effect on the
worker, the reckless spirit which is often produced
by the uncertainty whether one's job will end to-
day or last another month, the habit of drifting
from one occupation to another, — these are wholly

Returned to

work middle of

November

Laid off middle of January

Returned to work
February i

Laid off
March 7

Laid off

Labor

Day

Returned to work
August i

Laid off middle of July

Returned to work
middle of May

CHART IV. — PERIODS OF WORK AND IDLENESS, DURING ONE YEAR,
OF A GIRL EMPLOYED IN BINDING A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION.

demoralizing influences, and they become more
demoralizing rather than less so in proportion as
the worker's wages are needed for the support of
her family. Two important questions arise in a
discussion of possible solutions. First, is there

124

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

any way of meeting the present seasonal condi-
tion, so that without loss of time or wages, the
displaced workers may be transferred systemat-
ically from one bindery to another, or from one
occupation to another? Second, and more funda-
mental, would it be possible to plan the work in
such a way that the workers would suffer no loss
of time and wages during the year?

At present the bindery girl must rely chiefly on
her own efforts to solve the out-of-work problem.
Her means of finding positions are shown in Table
25, which is based on a tabulation of how 439 jobs
held by the group investigated were secured.

TABLE 25.— MEANS BY WHICH WOMEN FIND POSITIONS
IN BOOKBINDING ESTABLISHMENTS

Means of Finding Positions

POSITIONS FOUND BY
EACH SPECIFIED M EANS

Number

Per Cent

Relatives
Friends
Applied, saw sign on door ....
Advertisements
Returned, sent for by former employer
Other means

57
137
75
90

13
3'

7
ii

Total

439

IOO

That more than a third found positions through
applying at the bindery, seeing a "help wanted"
sign on the door, or by answering advertisements,
is significant of much wasted effort. Employers
say that in certain seasons a hundred girls will
answer an advertisement when two are needed.

12$

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

"Applying" usually means walking the streets
until a job is secured. To find a position with the
help of a friend means often a haphazard choice,
but it is the bindery girl's chief means of relief from
unemployment. Because these methods depend
more on chance than on forethought, and be-
cause the whole problem is so complex, many ob-
servers whose knowledge of labor conditions is
most intimate are urging the establishment of em-
ployment bureaus to serve as clearing houses,
enabling workers to get readily in touch with posi-
tions which would otherwise be unknown to them.
In a careful discussion of this subject, Dr.
Edward T. Devine writes*: "The question which
is pertinent and important is whether the unem-
ployed are so (i) because they are unemployable,
(2) because there is no work to be had, or (3)
because of maladjustment." The third cause, he
says, "an efficient employment bureau could at
least to some extent overcome. It is obvious that
if they are unemployed because they are unem-
ployable, the employment bureau is no remedy.
The only adequate remedy for a lack of efficiency
would be education and training. If, again, they
are unemployed because of a real and permanent
surplus of supply over the demand for labor, it is
plain that an employment bureau could not remedy
the difficulty. . . In so far, however, as the lack of

* Report on the Desirability of Establishing an Employment
Bureau in the City of New York, p. 5. Russell Sage Foundation
Publication. New York, Charities Publication Committee, 1909.

126

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

employment is due to maladjustment, that is, to the
inability of people who want work to get quickly
into contact with opportunities which exist and to
which there are no other equally appropriate means
of access, the bureau will be justified."

It cannot be said that irregularity of employ-
ment in the bookbinding trade is due solely to this
sort of maladjustment, — the inability of workers
needing work to find openings where workers are
needed. Some bindery girls are drifters, without
the foothold which skill might give them in their
occupation. Undoubtedly the industry itself is
in part responsible for producing these drifters,
but whatever the cause may be, an employment
bureau could not directly apply a remedy. Fur-
thermore, a large amount of unemployment in this
trade is due to the unequal distribution of work
throughout the weeks of the month, or the months
of the year, which automatically results in a sur-
plus of workers at certain seasons. An employ-
ment bureau could not at those times find openings
where none exist. The workers' records show,
however, that transfers from one establishment to
another, from one branch of the trade to another,
or even from bindery work to some other occupa-
tion, are entirely feasible. The difficulty is that
because of the lack of any adequate clearing house
for such transfers, time and effort are wasted in
a blind search for jobs. This is where an employ-
ment bureau would find its opportunity, provided
its equipment were adequate and its reach ex-

127

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

tensive in many different fields of employment
throughout the city. Through continuous con-
tact with market demands, and discriminating
study of the fitness of applicants, unwise choice of
positions and the loss of time involved in trans-
ferring workers from one establishment to another
could be minimized, with distinct advantage both
to workers and to employers. This same first-
hand experience would enable an employment
agent to read, in advance, the signs of a change in
machinery or methods which so frequently dis-
places workers without sufficient warning. Fur-
thermore, such a clearing house ought also to be a
storehouse of information regarding the causes of
irregular employment.

This transfer of workers from one position to
another, without undue loss of time and earnings,
is an immediate practical task, demanding a more
effective system of guidance than newspaper ad-
vertisements can supply. More fundamental, how-
ever, is the possibility of preventing the neces-
sity for such frequent transfers, by planning the
work so that it may be evenly distributed through-
out the year, thus avoiding dangerous over-fatigue
at one period, and a total loss of income at
another. Such a plan would involve no conflict
of interest between capital and labor, since for
both the steady use of the plant is of great ad-
vantage.

At present, however, little is being done in the
bookbinding trade to bring about a more even

128

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

distribution of orders throughout the year. Some
employers have attempted to keep the force to-
gether by various devices, such as dividing the
work so that all would be on part time instead of a
few on full time and the others out of work. In
some binderies the girls are laid off in shifts two
or three days at a time, instead of their being dis-
charged for a continuous period. The binders
who have attempted to remedy this irregularity
by inducing publishers to place orders in dull sea-
son, even offering substantial reductions in price,
say that their efforts have met with no encouraging
response.

It is, in fact, a case of divided responsibility.
Author, editor, publisher, printer, binder, critic,
reader, all have a share, more or less remote, in
creating the conditions which make the bindery
girl's work irregular. If the author has been tardy
in preparing the manuscript; if the editor has
dallied over revision; if the publisher, with his
eye on the critic and the reader, sends the book to
the printer at the moment when all other pub-
lishers are sending their books and insists upon
delivery at what he considers the psycholog-
ical publication hour; if the printer has taken so
many orders that he finishes this one several
days late, — then all together will demand that the
bookbinder make up for these delays by rushing
through the binding in a day and a night. In the
meantime the bookbinder, eager to have a hand
in the issue of as many as possible of this sudden
9 129

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

harvest of volumes, has taken more contracts than
he could possibly execute during the normal hours
of work. At the last moment then, when the
pressure is greatest, it is the bindery hands who
must make up for the time lost all along the line.
Following this rush period comes unemployment
or part time. Thus the rush period deserves con-
sideration as a point of attack in attempting to
prevent the evil of slack season.

The necessity for such a stampede seems to be,
after all, more or less a creation of the imagination
of the makers and sellers of literature. Books are
not perishable, — in the physical sense. They can
be bound and stored until the time comes to flood
the market with them. Furthermore, publishers
are surely not powerless to create in the popular
imagination the desire for continuous rather than
for seasonal publication. If critics and advertisers
can so manipulate the intelligence of readers as
to sell one hundred thousand copies of a trashy
novel, why can they not persuade the same readers
to buy a book every month? Already magazine
publishers have begun to realize that they need
not all seek the same date of publication.

Unfortunately, however, a stronger motive for
change is needed by the men and women who are
managing the book market than the desire to give
steady work to an unknown bindery hand. Uni-
form pressure is necessary to restrain the least
humane of employers from under-bidding his
competitors by overworking his employes. Such

130

IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

pressure may be provided by factory legislation.
Interesting testimony on this point was brought
together in a report of commissioners appointed
to inquire into the working of the Factory and
Workshops Act in England in 1876. Members of
women's trade unions were called to testify.

Bookbinders, questioned about the relation of
legislation to their occupation, complained that
the trade was most unnecessarily considered by
the law a season trade. Moreover, they thought
that the existence of the modification (permitting
an extension of hours to fourteen per day, during
certain periods of the year) made employers care-
less of due economy in time. They declared that
"there is a great deal of work done during those
months which might as well be done during the
slack season, such as school books or anything of
that kind that are always required, but they are
generally kept back until the beginning of the
winter season comes on." One witness was asked
whether it would be possible to bind magazines
without working overtime. The reply was, "Not
at present, but I think it is a thing which could be
managed in time, because I think the publishers,
when they know they can get them done by a
certain day, very often keep them back when they
might be pushed forward; because in such an
emergency as that there is no respect to the Act,
they keep them back until the last moment."*

* Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the
working of the Factory and Workshops Acts, Minutes of Evidence,
p. 135. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1876.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

This testimony, corroborated by statements
made by New York bookbinders, suggests that
restrictions on overtime in busy season would be
a powerful means of compelling a more even dis-
tribution of orders. The bookbinder who was
sure that he and all his competitors must obey
a state law limiting the hours of women's work
would refuse orders which he could not execute in
a normal working day. Publishers and all others
concerned in the issue of a book would then be
forced to adjust their plans to the new condition,
by allowing more time for the binding. The diffi-
culty of getting work done in busy season would
also make them more responsive to the binders'
overtures for dull-season orders. It is evident,
therefore, that in legislation limiting the hours
of work the state has one means of meeting its
responsibility for the problem of steadying the
seasons.

132

CHAPTER VI
OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

BOOKBINDERIES are factories in the legal
meaning of the term. According to the
New York law no child under fourteen years
of age may be employed in a bindery. None be-
tween the ages of fourteen and sixteen may work
unless provided with an employment certificate,
nor may a child between these ages work longer
than eight hours in a day, or at any time, except
between the hours of 8 a. m. and 5 p. m. At
the time of this investigation, no woman of
sixteen years or older might be employed more
than sixty hours weekly, more than six days in a
week, or more than ten hours in a day except under
certain conditions.* She might work overtime,
however, regularly on five days in the week
in order to make the sixth day shorter. Or she
might work overtime irregularly on three days in
the week, provided that the working day never

* By an amendment enacted by the 1912 legislature, which took
effect October ist, 1912, the working week for women was reduced from
sixty to fifty-four hours, and the working day to nine hours, while
certain exception clauses permitted ten hours under certain condi-
tions, but never twelve hours as was possible under the former law.
As this investigation was made before the enactment of the fifty-
four hour law, the discussion in this chapter relates to a working
week of sixty hours. The underlying principles of enforcement,
however, and the need for public support of such legislation, as it
is illustrated in the bookbinding trade, are unchanged by the differ-
ences in the law.

'33

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

exceeded twelve hours. Practically then, the New
York law permitted a twelve-hour day. Under no
conditions might the weekly hours exceed sixty.
No woman under twenty-one years of age might
work between the hours of 9 p. m. and 6 a. m.
Women over twenty-one might work by night or
by day, provided the working week did not exceed
sixty hours and that the working day was not
more than ten hours, except under the conditions
already described, when a twelve-hour day was
permissible. The law which became operative
in October, 1912, reduced the sixty-hour weekly
limit to fifty-four, and the daily hours to nine,
with permission to work ten hours on the same
terms which formerly made twelve hours possible.
For children under sixteen then, the statute is
plain, — no work before 8 a. m., or after 5 p. m. or
longer than eight hours in any one day, but as soon
as the sixteenth birthday is passed the legal day is
lengthened and confusing exceptions are introduced
into the law. Their application to the bindery in-
dustry can be made clearer by showing the actual
hours of work of a few women in the trade.

A girl of sixteen worked in a large bindery where
books, department store catalogues, and a monthly
magazine were bound. Her regular hours were
eight in a day, from 8 a. m. to 5 p. m.; forty-eight
in a week. Each month from the i6th to the 25th,
when the magazine was bound, she worked until
9 p. m. sometimes twice and sometimes three times
a week. Her day then was from 8 a. m. until

134

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

9 p. m. with an hour for lunch and a half-hour for
supper, or a total of eleven and one-half working
hours, excluding meal time. The total weekly
hours of labor were fifty-five when she worked
overtime twice, and fifty-eight and a half when she
stayed three evenings. This schedule of hours did
not violate the law in any particular. The girl was
sixteen years old and hence was not protected by
the eight-hour law for children of fourteen and
fifteen. She did not begin work before 6 a. m.
nor work later than 9 p. m. She had thirty minutes
for supper; the law requires only twenty minutes'
recess when working later than 7 p. m. The total
daily hours of actual labor when working over-
time did not exceed eleven and one-half, and never
occurred more than three times in a six-day work-
ing week; the law permitted twelve hours three
days in the week. The total working week did
not exceed fifty-eight and a half hours; the
law permitted sixty hours. Thus it was possible
to work overtime without violating the law.

In September and in February, however, this
bindery no longer kept within the law. At those
seasons the fall and spring catalogues of depart-
ment stores were bound. Instead of working
three nights, employes stayed until 9 p. m. on five
nights a week and sometimes added three hours
on Saturday, so that the working week was sixty-
five and a half hours long with five days of over-
time, or sixty-eight and a half when the Saturday's
overtime work was added.

135

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

The differences between this schedule and the
preceding one are the length of the working week,
and the five or six days of overtime, instead of
two or three, above ten hours. These differences
constituted violations of the law. Sixty-eight and
a half hours exceeded the legal sixty, and a day of
longer than ten hours was permissible only when it
occurred (a) regularly on five days or less, as a means
of shortening the sixth day while completing a full
week of sixty hours or less, or (b) irregularly
on three days or less. This bindery could legally
have lengthened its daily eight hours regularly to
eleven from Monday to Friday and then worked five
hours on Saturday. When the overtime above ten
hours occurred "irregularly" at rush seasons, it
must be limited to three days in a week.

This illustration suffices to show the difficulty of
enforcing either the sixty-hour law or the new
fifty-four hour provision. Two or three nights of
overtime does not constitute a violation. Proof
cannot be complete without data showing the hours
of actual work, exclusive of meal time, each day,
and their combined total. A single inspection
would be sufficient to give basis for prosecution
if a girl under twenty-one were found working
after 9 p. m. In that case, the inspector would be
obliged to prove the age as well as the time at
which the girl was found at work.

This proof of age is necessary because, as soon
as a woman passes her twenty-first birthday, the
provision of law prohibiting the work of younger

136

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

women after 9 p. m. or before 6 a. m. no longer ap-
plies to her. A girl twenty-three years old was
employed to fill the boxes of a gathering machine
in a magazine bindery. She worked from 8:30
a. m. to 5 130 p. m. with a half hour at noon. She
began again at 6:30 p. m. and worked until mid-
night. After a recess of thirty minutes she con-
tinued her day's task until 5 130 a. m. This was a
total working period of nineteen hours. Since
the law permitted a twelve-hour day, and did not
prohibit employment of adult women during the
night, a working day of twenty-four hours was legal
for them. With the stroke of the clock at midnight,
a twelve-hour day ended and another twelve-hour
day might begin. In the case of this girl, not the
long stretch of work, but the fact that fourteen hours
instead of twelve preceded midnight, was a viola-
tion of the law. The legal provisions would have
been fulfilled had she begun work two hours later
and stayed in the bindery until noon the next day.
These illustrations reveal the inadequacy of the
law, its confusing exceptions and its failure to
prohibit night work. Exact evidence as to its
enforcement in any one trade is difficult to
secure. Employers are not likely to give full
information about their own offenses against it.
Workers are often afraid to give exact facts
damaging to their employers, lest to do so should
result in loss of their jobs. In the bookbind-
ing trade in particular, investigators encounter the
further difficulty that overtime is so customary

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

that it does not occur to the workers to speak of it.
They are surprised at the question, Have you
ever worked overtime? " If you're in bindery
work, you have to," they reply. Nevertheless, a
statistical measure of the extent of overtime work
has been secured by tabulating the girls' state-
ments about their most recent positions. Their
testimony about the physical effects of the work
will show the need for a stronger law and better
enforcement. First, however, it is important to
know the length of the normal working day and
week without overtime, as it appears on the records

TABLE 26.— DAILY HOURS OF WORK OF WOMEN EM-
PLOYED IN BOOKBINDING*

WOMEN WORKING SPECIFIED HOURS IN

Edition and

Daily Hours of Work

Pamphlet Bind-
eries Employing
SO or more

All Other
Binderies

All Binderies

Women

Num-

Per

Num-

Per

Num-

Per

ber

Cent

ber •

Cent

ber

Cent

Less than 8 hours

8 hours .

1,013

3«

420

'.433

More than 8, less

than 8}4 .

8}4 and less than 9

1,440

582

2,022

9 and less than 9^

790

1,214

2,OO4

9>£ and less than 10

135

10 or more

Total

3*243

IOO

2,446

IOO

5,689

IOO

a Information was secured from 208 binderies, employing a normal
force of 5,689 women. This table shows hours on first five days of
the week, but not on Saturdays. b Less than 0.5 per cent.

I38

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

of binderies, supplemented by workers' reports
and by figures given by the New York State
Department of Labor.

Nearly three-fourths work between eight and a
half and nine and a half hours a day, while 25 per
cent have an even eight-hour day. This state-
ment applies to the hours of labor on the first five
days in the week. In many cases the excess over
eight hours on these days is due to a schedule by
which the working period on Saturday is shortened,
while the length of the week is forty-eight hours.*

TABLE 27.— WEEKLY HOURS OF WORK OF WOMEN EM-
PLOYED IN BOOKBINDING*

WOMEN WORKING SPECIFIED HOURS IN

Edition and

Weekly Hours
of Work

Pamphlet Binder-
ies Employing 50
or more Women

All Other
Binderies

All Binderies

Num-

Per

Num-

Per

Num-

Per

ber

Cent

ber

Cent

ber

Cent

48 hours or less

2,278

818

3,096

Over 48 and less than

50 ...

125

178

303

50 and less than 52

135

332

467

52 and less than 54

380

287

667

54 and less than 56

275

617

892

56 and less than 58

58 and less than 60

Total

3.193

100

2,308

100

5.501

100

a Of the 5,689 women employed in binderies supplying any infor-
mation regarding hours, 188 were in establishments which did not
give complete data on weekly hours of labor. b Less than 0.5 per cent.

* The time of beginning and ending work, and length of noon
recess are shown in Appendix B, Tables I, J, and K, pp. 254-255.

139

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

Thus when not working overtime 56 per cent of
the bindery women in these establishments have
a normal working week of forty-eight hours, or,
in a very few cases, less, and less than 2 per cent
work fifty-six hours or more a week. In the busy
season, however, these hours are frequently pro-
longed, and this lengthening of the normal day or
week is always called "overtime/' although it may
not exceed or even equal the limit allowed by the
law. Thus, a distinction must be kept in mind
between overtime which is illegal because it exceeds
the limits set by law, and overtime which is merely
an excess above the usual schedule of hours pre-
vailing in an establishment, without violating the
state labor law designed to prevent excessive over-
time. Of the 36 large edition and pamphlet bin-
deries from which information about overtime
was secured, 31 reported that they lengthened the
hours of work at some season of the year. Of 88
smaller establishments giving this information,
63 had overtime, and of 31 blankbook makers, 22.
These figures are based on the employers' state-
ments.

Although these establishments may not all ex-
ceed the limit of the law, the girls' statements re-
garding 227 positions which they have held very
recently indicate that many do. Usually one
girl's experience represented that of a number of
her fellow-workers. Nine per cent of the reports
of overtime were from girls under sixteen, 22 per
cent from those sixteen to eighteen, 40 per cent

140

WIRE-STITCHERS. ARTIFICIAL LIGHT ALL DAY

ONE END OF A CROWDED BINDERY

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

from workers between eighteen and twenty-one,
and 29 per cent from those twenty-one and over.
This indicates how large is the proportion of young
girls among the workers whose hours are prolonged
in busy season. The girls' reports covered 88
different binderies of which 36 were edition
and pamphlet binderies employing 50 or more
women. Seventy per cent, 159, of the reports
showed overtime, including legal and illegal, while
more than half of these instances of overtime
were violations of the law. Workers reported 1 52
distinct violations in 42 different establishments.
Table 28 classifies these violations according to
the section of the law to which they relate.

TABLE 28.— VIOLATIONS IN BOOKBINDING ESTABLISH-

MENTS OF LAW RESTRICTING HOURS OF WORK

FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS

Nature of Violation

Number of Viola-
tions of each
Specified Nature

Employment for more than 60 hours weekly
Employment for more than 12 hours daily .
Employment for more than 10 hours daily, irregu-
larly more than 3 times a week ....
Less than 20 minutes allowed for supper to
women working overtime more than i hour
after 6 p. m
Employment for 7 days a week ....
Employment of women under 21 years of age
after 9 p. m.
Employment of women 21 years and over after
9 p. m. (before law was declared unconsti-
tutional)

51
35

Total

152

141

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

These statistics are in no sense a measure of
conditions in the trade. They are merely illustra-
tions of too prevalent a practice of lengthening
the hours of work in binderies. A fuller dis-
cussion of the girls' reports of overtime, both legal
and illegal, will make the situation clearer.

Some of their 159 reports of overtime showed
comparatively early closing hours, which were not
violations of law (and did not appear in Table 28).
In 21 per cent of the 159 cases the girls were not
kept later than 7 o'clock, and in 16 per cent they
left the bindery between 8 and 9. In 44 per cent
they stayed until 9 and in 19 per cent, almost one
in every five, they worked until later at night.
Several flagrant cases were included in this last
group; one reported work until 12:30 a. m., three
until i in the morning, two until 3 o'clock, one
until 5:30, one until 8 and one until 9 the next
morning. In every one of these cases the girl had
gone to work in the morning and worked through-
out the day and evening until after midnight.

For a girl to leave a bindery at such late hours
as are here indicated, and go home alone through
the streets, is obviously dangerous. The fact that
the law permits women of twenty-one or over
to work after 9 p. m. also makes a loop-hole for
employing younger girls until late at night. One
of the girls whose record appears in these state-
ments was employed at the age of seventeen to
stitch programs for opera houses and theaters.

142

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

During the theater season she worked overtime
until ii or 12 o'clock at night, a day of fourteen
and a half hours. She walked home alone, past
the closed business houses downtown. "Only
bums are down there at that hour of the night/'
she said.

Another girl of the same age was employed
a year and a half in a pamphlet and maga-
zine bindery "knocking up." She frequently
worked overtime Saturday night, sometimes stay-
ing until 2, 3, or 4 o'clock Sunday morning. Her
home was in one of the worst sections of Fourteenth
Street. She was laid off in March and had great
difficulty in securing any other position. A few
weeks later she disappeared and no one in her
family knew where she had gone. Whether her
employment at night and her walks along Four-
teenth Street at 2 or 3 a. m. were the direct cause
of her disappearance cannot be proved. But
the danger of adding such influences to those
which already surround young girls in a city like
New York needs no proof.

The total hours daily in all reports of overtime
showed as wide a range as did the statements
about closing hours. In 9 per cent of 139 cases
in which the daily working hours were fully
reported, the maximum day when working over-
time did not exceed ten hours, in 14 per cent it was
between ten and eleven hours, and in 29 per cent
it was between eleven and twelve hours in length,

143

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

exclusive of meal time. Twelve-hour days ap-
peared in 23 per cent of the reports, while in 25
per cent the overtime day was longer than twelve
hours.

The detailed reports of working days longer than
twelve hours show appalling conditions. These
hours represent actual working time, after deduct-
ing the length of noon recess and the time allowed
for supper. In four positions the day was 12^
hours long; in seven, 12^2 hours; in three, 12^; in
nine, 13; in one, 13^; in two, 14; in two, 15^;
in two, 16; in two, 18; in one, 19^; in one, 2i>^;
and in one, 22 hours. The United States gov-
ernment investigators, whose report has been
quoted,* found an even more alarming example of
overwork of a girl in a bindery, — a working "day"
of 24^ hours.

The occurrence of these long days is, of course,
not consecutive or continuous. That would be
unendurable. For example, magazine binderies
are notorious for the great irregularity in the length
of successive days. The working week of a girl
employed in one of them is shown in Chart
V. The normal day is nine hours, but only
one in this week was of that length. The
other days varied from four to fifteen working
hours. After fifteen hours of work on Thursday
and fourteen on Friday, it requires no argument to
prove that a short day of four hours on Saturday

* See page 2.

144

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

even followed by rest on Sunday does not com-
pensate for the intense physical strain endured on
those two days. Thus, even though the working
week was only two and a half hours longer than the
law allows, within that time an exhausting period
of labor was possible. A tabulation of the weekly
hours, however, indicated also excessive overwork
in many positions. Not all the reports of over-
time gave all the information necessary for de-
termining the length of the working week.

The weekly hours were within the legal limit,
sixty hours or less, in 46 cases, and exceeded it in

Hours Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
24 '

Saturday

CHART V. — DAILY HOURS OF LABOR IN A ONE WEEK PERIOD, IN A
PAMPHLET BINDERY

51. The details of the group working 70 to 80
hours showed 70 hours in three cases, 71 in two,
10 145

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

72 in one, 72 X in one, 75^ in one, 78 in two, and
80 in one. To realize fully how great a menace
such overwork is to the health of bindery girls,
it is necessary to emphasize the nature of their
tasks, the conditions under which they work, the
possible danger of accidents, and the more com-
mon danger of fatigue to which many of the work-
ers bore witness.

Liability to accidents increases with overwork,
and must be considered in relation to the legal
regulation of the working day. Injuries to the
hands or fingers seem to be more frequent than
fatal accidents among bindery women. The
worker usually suffers loss of time as a result; in
some cases a change of occupation is necessary.
A girl who worked in the trade fourteen years,
said that she had never tried to operate a machine.
"They're too dangerous, and if you lose your finger
the boss ain't goin' to do anything for you. I've
seen girls get the ends of their fingers cut off by
the machine." "We work on machines at our
own risk," said the feeder of a folding machine.
"On the point folding machine the girls have to
put their hands under the knife and draw them
back before the knife comes down." One girl,
sixteen years old, was employed to operate the
wire-stitching machine in a magazine bindery.
She wire-stitched her finger one Sunday morning
early when she had been working steadily since
Saturday at 8:30 a. m. One girl had her finger
caught by the descending knife of a cutting ma-

146

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

chine from which she was taking the magazines.
She fainted and was taken to a hospital. She
reported every day at the bindery for three weeks
and was paid full wages ($7.00 a week) but did
very little work except running errands. After
three weeks, the finger was better, but she was so
unnerved that she could not work near the ma-
chines. She folded sheets by hand, but her in-
jury hindered her in the work, and prevented
her earning more than $4.00 a week. Another
girl lost the forefinger of her right hand while
operating an indexing machine in a blankbook
bindery. At that time she was earning $5.00
a week. The company did not reimburse her
loss, although she had to begin again as a learner
and practice other processes in which the loss of
the finger would not be a hindrance. "Any ma-
chine is dangerous if you don't watch it carefully,"
said another girl. Over the entrance to the work-
room of a magazine bindery is a sign which reads:

"DANGER. All persons are warned to use care

when around machines and promptly to

report any defects."

The fatigue caused by prolonged periods of work
is greatly increased when the workroom is dark,
dusty, or badly ventilated. Great variety char-
acterizes conditions in the workrooms of New York
binderies. Girls have been found stitching a
magazine "devoted to the interests of health," in
a cellar workroom entirely below street level,

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

lighted by gas. Others have been found at work
in large lofts of high buildings, where ventilation
and light were excellent. In some binderies' a
modern passenger elevator carries one to the work-
room; in others one must choose between long
flights of dark and dusty wooden stairs and the
slow freight "hoist" with its sign, "All persons
riding in this elevator do so at their own risk."
Overcrowding, insufficient lighting, and lack of
proper ventilation endanger the workers' health
in too many binderies. Books piled high cut off
light and air. The seats provided often lack backs
or foot-rests, and in many processes constant
standing is the custom.

The story of a bookbinder who is now too ill to
work will illustrate the danger to which many of
her fellow- workers are exposed, through bad work-
room conditions, combined with the breaking down
of physical resistance by heavy tasks and long
hours. A board of health physician found this
girl tubercular, and through the activity of a re-
lief society she was sent to a sanatorium. The
girl's home and the place where she had been em-
ployed were visited. She had worked five years
in the same workroom. Before that, illness had
forced her to leave her previous position, which
she had held also for five years. In this first posi-
tion, she had frequently worked overtime in win-
ter three nights a week until 9 p. m., a day of
twelve and a half hours. To save carfare she had
walked to and from the bindery. "I'd walk

148

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

home," she said, "and mamma 'd be out nursing
and I'd be too tired to get any supper; that's how
I got run down." She was ill three months. A
physician then said that her lungs were sound,
but that care would be necessary to keep them so.

In the bindery where she was at work when she
became ill with tuberculosis she had stood all day
during the first year, examining and wrapping
heavy bound volumes for a wage of $4.00 to $5.00
a week. After that she learned to collate the
sheets of the books, and sat at work. The paper
was heavy. It "tired" her chest and back to hold
the sheets while collating. Although she was a
week worker "it was necessary to rush because I
had to keep the sewer, who was on piece work,
supplied. If I didn't collate fast enough she'd
complain to the forewoman that she couldn't
make out."

To conditions in this workroom she attributed
her illness from tuberculosis. Other cases had
developed in the same bindery. The books were
not always bound immediately. After they had
been gathered they were sometimes stacked for
months, and the collators were the first ones
to handle them while they were covered with ac-
cumulated dust. The workroom was not kept
clean, and the floor was swept while the girls were
at work. In response to a complaint the Labor
Department sent a ventilation expert to investigate
the bindery, and the results of the inspection were
reported in these words :

149

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

"He found the air openings in the windows too
small for proper ventilation and ordered them to
be enlarged. The air test showed 12 to 14 parts
carbonic anhydride in 10,000 volumes, which is
above the legal limit. The water closets were
found clean. The fourth floor workroom (wom-
en's department) was found blocked with accumu-
lated stock which was covered with dust. Orders
were given to cover the stock and wet-cleanse the
floor every day."

This girl's home was immaculately clean, and
her mother a careful housekeeper. But good care
at home could not prevent the undermining of
health in ten years of bindery work beginning with
long daily hours, a walk home late on cold winter
nights, a deferred supper or none at all because she
was "too tired to eat," a heavy cold, and then five
years of exhausting work in a bindery where the
dust was allowed to accumulate and was then stirred
up by handling sheets of paper or sweeping while
the workers were in the bindery. Yet no factor in
this bindery girl's history is unique, except her
unusually comfortable home.

A witness of the processes of work in bookbin-
deries would require no medical proof of two chief
dangers to which bindery women are exposed, the
danger from the accumulation of dust on paper,
and the danger of fatigue. The workers' own
statements are important as testimony on these
points.

"She was all worn out and she got so thin there
150

A CROWDED WORKROOM

ACCUMULATED STOCK GATHERING DUST

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

wasn't anything to her/' said the mother of a girl
who for three years had worked all night two or
three times a week in the winter months. She
began in the morning and worked until 5:30 a. m.
the following day. "Then she was supposed to
rest all day and until the next morning at 8 when
she went to work again," said her mother. " But
she got so tired she would cry all morning when
she came home and she couldn't sleep well. The
doctor told her she'd have to stop night work."

In a certain bindery in New York a grocers' cata-
logue is bound every Wednesday evening. In
order not to miss tardy advertisements it is not
brought to the bindery until 7 p. m. Two women
work until 10 or 1 1 p. m. to prepare it for the mail
Thursday morning. After that hour, one of them,
twenty-three years old, must journey an hour from
Brooklyn Bridge before reaching home uptown
in Manhattan. Just before the Fourth of July,
1911, in a record-breaking hot spell this girl was
overcome by the heat at night in the bindery.
She was dizzy and nauseated, and "could hardly
hold her head up," but the grocers' catalogue must
be wire-stitched and she could not stop work until
the order was finished. She was ill for two weeks
afterwards, receiving no wages for the time lost,
but the catalogue was mailed in time, and thus the
firm did not lose the contract for binding it.

But aside from the fatigue caused by working
such long hours, the processes in themselves are
hard, even under the best conditions. "Gather-

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

ing is very heavy," said a bindery girl in New York
City. "I'm always thin. I never can pick up."
One girl wears gloves while inserting the large
sheets of a magazine one within another, to pre-
vent the swelling of her hands and wrists. Another
bandages her wrists. "The work wears you out
after awhile," she said. Both these girls stand at
work all day. " Bindery work is very hard work,"
said another. " When you get your wages, you've
earned every cent. When the girls get home
they're too tired to do anything." " I don't like
bookbinding," said a learner who had been em-
ployed a year in the trade. "They're getting
machines for everything. I was on a machine,
gathering, and every once in a while I'd be so tired
I'd have to stay home a day. Knocking up is
tiresome too." A girl seventeen years old who
had charge of four folding machines said that tend-
ing them made her so nervous that she frequently
cried from fatigue when she reached home at
night. "No girl should go into bookbinding un-
less she is very strong," said another. A young
learner emptied the boxes into which the large
folding machine delivers the folded sheets. The
work was so heavy that she broke down and was
idle three months. "They ought to have boys to
do that work," she said.

An examiner and wrapper who handled the com-
pleted volumes, often heavy, asserted that the
rapid turning of the pages of the books tired her
eyes very quickly. "At first," she said, "I used

152

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

to see the pages moving in my sleep." She stood
at work and seldom had a chance to sit down.
"We fairly had to swipe our chairs. If we sat
down long they'd give us a look, as much as to
say, ' It's time you stood up." Another girl, who
stood always while doing this work, left because of
illness; she said that it was due to standing and to
holding the heavy volumes. Her two sisters had
been bindery girls. Their father objected to their
working in this trade. "He can't be havin' us
work in binderies, and then be havin' to pay doc-
tor's bills."

A girl who was employed more than four years
in the gold laying department of an edition bindery
was obliged to leave the trade because of illness.
Air, circulating freely, might blow the gold leaf.
Lack of ventilation caused her to faint and have
nausea. Another gold layer said that it was
impossible to ventilate the room, and that in
summer it was almost unendurable. Others com-
plained, also, of eye-strain. "The gold has a
glare," said one of them.

" I would never advise a girl to take up number-
ing," said an operator of a numbering machine,
which is run by a foot-pedal, pressed eight or ten
thousand times a day. " I know a lot of girls
that have had to have operations because of it."
In a blankbook bindery, a girl who does general
work complains of severe pains in her side, due to
the constant pressure of the foot on the pedal of a
perforating machine. Usually she does a few

153

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

hours' work a day on this machine, and then turns
to other work, but recently the firm had a large
order which lasted nearly four weeks, and the
machine was running constantly, one girl taking it
the moment another stopped operating it. The
bulk of this work falls to her share because she
operates the machine more carefully than the
others. The visitor's report of her interview
reads: "Katie looks worn out and is discouraged
because she doesn't get more than $7.00 for the
hard work she is doing. She was busy washing
the supper dishes (8 120 p.m.). Her younger sister
was dressing to go to a wedding. Katie said that
she used to go to dances and weddings when she
was young but she is too tired to go now. She is
twenty-two years old."

It is obvious that even the unskilled work of
lifting sheets from the boxes of machines or carry-
ing books from one part of the workroom to another
is exhausting, especially if the working hours be
long. Doubtless it was dislike of this heavy work
which led the London Societies of Journeymen
Bookbinders, in an agreement in which the women
workers were not represented or consulted, to
declare that "they will not make it a grievance
if," in addition to a few other processes, "female
or unskilled labour is placed upon the carrying of
loads of work about the work shop."*

* MacDonald, J. Ramsay: Women in the Printing Trades, p. 8.
London, King, 1904.

154

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

" Physical effort," writes Dr. Oliver,* "and the
lifting and carrying of heavy weights not only im-
press themselves upon the muscles and nervous
system, but upon all parts of the body, particu-
larly the bones in early adolescence and the period
of growth. ... If standing all day when at
work in an overheated factory causes tiredness of
the muscles and also varicose veins, prolonged
sitting may be just as harmful, for the lumbar
region of the spinal column becomes bent, the
movements of the abdominal viscera are interfered
with, the lower ribs are compressed, and since
deep inspiration is hardly possible the lungs are
badly ventilated and the aeration of the blood is
imperfect." It follows that specialization in proc-
esses, which compels a worker to maintain one
position throughout the working day, should be
listed among the occupational dangers. This dan-
ger exists in binderies, and is multiplied as the
hours of labor are prolonged.

An increasing number of experiments to deter-
mine the nature of fatigue are supplying scientific
proof of the need for labor legislation.! " Fatigue
or tiredness," writes Dr. Oliver, J "is a sensation,
the outcome of a particular state of the nervous
system, the result of work carried beyond the
capabilities of the organism. In ordinary physio-

*Oliver, Thomas, M.D.: Diseases of Occupation, p. n. New
York, Dutton, 1908.

fGoIdmark, Josephine: Fatigue and Efficiency. Russell Sage Foun-
dation Publication. New York, Charities Publication Committee, 1912.

t Oliver, op. cit., pp. 6, 9.

'55

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

logical activity exhaustion is never attained, for
fatigue is the warning signal. . . . The waste
products added to the blood act upon the nerve
endings in muscle and upon the grey matter of the
brain, and create a sense of fatigue. . . and
on the other hand they poison the large nerve cells
in the grey matter of the brain, render them less
receptive of sensory stimuli, and in this way re-
duce their power of emitting volitional impulses.
There is, therefore, in fatigue an element that is
mental as well as physical. After rest and sleep
the sensation of fatigue wears off, and we rise invigo-
rated and strengthened for work. During repose,
structure is being rebuilt and waste products are
eliminated. . . . One of the important fea-
tures of overwork, calling for notice, is the manner
in which fatigue is repaired. It is a question of
length of time."

It is evident that fatigue is not the result of a
particular process of work, but a sign of overwork
in any occupation. The time element is the de-
cisive factor in its cause; it is also the decisive
factor in recovery. Of course, the length of time
necessary to induce fatigue varies with the nature
of the work, and the individual power of endurance.
But that time alone can cure fatigue, and that ex-
haustion may be the result of ignoring it are facts
which the scientists have proved applicable to
every worker in every occupation. It is the pur-
pose of labor laws to protect the health of workers
against the poisonous effects of fatigue. How in-

156

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

adequate is the protection extended to bindery
women in New York is clear, and suggests a dis-
cussion of the law.

In 1886, the legislature of New York state passed
its first factory law, entitled "An act to regulate
the employment of women and children in manu-
facturing establishments, and to provide for the
appointment of inspectors to enforce the same."
According to this law no woman under twenty-one
might be employed more than sixty hours in any
one week, "unless for the purpose of making neces-
sary repairs." It prohibited the employment of
any child under the age of thirteen years. Only
one inspector and one assistant were appointed to
enforce it. In 1889, the daily working hours of
women under twenty-one years were limited to
ten, but an "exception" clause permitted longer
days for the purpose of shortening the hours of
work on Saturday. In the same year night work
of women under twenty-one years was prohibited
between the hours of 9 p. m. and 6 a. m. In 1899,
by a single act, the provisions of the law were
extended to all women irrespective of age.

Judging by the number of prosecutions, lax en-
forcement has characterized the history of the law.
In the six years preceding 1906, there were only
four prosecutions in New York state either for
employing women more than sixty hours in a week
or for employing them after 9 p. m. in any factory.
Only one employer was convicted and fined in
that period. One was acquitted. Two were con-

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

victed and sentence suspended. Yet violations were
known to the commissioner of labor, for he wrote
in his report of 1902,*

"Reference to the tables of orders, complaints, and
prosecutions will show that the principal source of
trouble is the tendency on the part of factory managers
to exact longer hours than the legal maximum for
women and minors, and to employ children without
filing the required certificate of age, school attendance
and physical fitness/'

The year 1906 was characterized by a sudden
burst of activity with more than three times as
many prosecutions begun as in the preceding five
years. Six employers in the bookbinding trade
were arrested for employing women after 9 p. m.
Seven other prosecutions were begun for employ-
ing women more than sixty hours in a week.f This
activity resulted in court decisions in two cases in
the same year, in one of which the prohibition of
night work was declared unconstitutional, while in
the other the sixty-hour law was held to be a legiti-
mate exercise of the police power of the state.!

* Second Annual Report of the Department of Labor of the
State of New York, 1902. Vol. I. Pt. III. Report of the Bureau
of Factory Inspection, p. 24.

t New York State Department of Labor, Factory Inspection, 1906.
Part II, p. 210.

{The case of one Mary Seeback's employment in a laundry more
than sixty hours in a week never passed beyond the court of special
sessions, which declared that "a law which attempts to limit the num-
ber of hours of labor of a woman employed in a factory, may well be a
health regulation and a proper legislative exercise of the state's police
power." New York State Department of Labor, Bulletin No. 31,
December, 1906, p. 484. For court decision, People v. Howe, Court
of Special Sessions, see Appendix C, pp. 256-258.

I58

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

The case regarding the prohibition of night work,
now wellknown as the People v. Williams, is of
direct interest in a study of the bookbinding trade.
The opening paragraphs of the judges' decision
give the setting.

"At twenty minutes after ten o'clock on the night of
January 31, 1906, a deputy factory inspector visited
the bookbinding establishment of the defendant, No.
437 Eleventh Avenue, in the County of New York, and
there found one Katie Mead, a female more than twenty-
one years of age, and a citizen, employed in 'gathering/
to wit, assembling printed papers in the form of a book
or pamphlet for binding purposes. The defendant, one
of the proprietors of the establishment, was present and
in charge of the work and the employes, and among
them were several other women. There is no pretext
that the building was insecure, the light bad, ventila-
tion defective, or the general sanitary condition defi-
cient. In these respects, the deputy testified, 'It is
the best factory of the kind in New York City/

"The information upon which the defendant was
tried and convicted charges a misdemeanor under sec-
tion 77, article 6, entitled ' Factories/ of the General
Laws Relating to Labor, in that he employed, permitted
and suffered the said Katie Mead to work in that factory
after nine o'clock at night on the date specified/'*

Katie Mead, on the night of January 31, 1906,
was not only a bindery hand. She was a represen-
tative of all the women employed in factories in

* New York State Department of Labor, Bulletin No. 30, Sep-
tember, 1906, p. 340 ff. People v. Williams, Court of Special Sessions.

'59

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

New York state. The work that she did in the
bindery that night after 9 o'clock resulted in "the
first judicial construction thus far made in the
United States of a statute prohibiting the em-
ployment of women in factories at night/'*
Three courts, in succession, declared the prohibi-
tion unconstitutional, and, as a result of their de-
cision, Katie Mead and all other adult women in
binderies or in any other factories of New York
state may be "employed, permitted and suffered"
to work throughout the night.

The reasoning of the courts is somewhat in-
volved, but the importance of the decision in the
history of factory laws in New York, and its im-
mediate bearing on their present enforcement,
makes full discussion of it desirable. The court
declared that the issue was not the limitation of
the working hours in a day or a week. "How
long the woman worked on the day in question,
how long she worked that week, or how many
hours of labor she had contracted to perform on
the night she was found working in the factory—
none of these things appear. The sole fact before
us is that a woman was employed in factory work
for a few minutes during hours when the statute
declares it was unlawful to so employ her." The
justice believed that one of women's rights
certainly was

" the right to contract for her labor and to work when
and where she pleased without reference to the position

* Ibid., p. 336 if.
1 60

MIDNIGHT IN A MAGAZINE BINDERY

THE MIDNIGHT LUNCH HOUR

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

of the hands upon the dial of the clock. . . . There
is nothing in the prohibition of the section in question
which indicates that its object is to promote the health
or the public welfare. Had the statute been so framed
as to provide that none of the employment of women
for sixty hours a week or ten hours a day should be be-
tween 9 p. m. and 6 a. m., or had it provided that women
might work only a limited time after 9 o'clock p. m.
and before 6 o'clock a. m., if she was employed during
other hours of the day, its object as a health regulation
might be apparent. When, however, it is so drawn as
to prevent an adult citizen from exercising her right to
contract for employment, even for so limited a period
as one hour during the prohibited time, it cannot prop-
erly be considered a health regulation."

The appellate division of the Supreme Court
affirmed this decision but their vote was divided,
two of the five justices dissenting.* Justice Scott,
writing the majority opinion, declared that

"the opinion delivered by the learned justice who wrote
for the Court of Special Sessions discusses the constitu-
tional infirmity of that clause of the statute upon which
the prosecution is based so satisfactorily that we adopt
it as the opinion of this Court. . . . The provision
under examination is aimed solely against work at
night, without regard to the length of time during which
work is performed, or the conditions under which it is
carried on, and in order to sustain the reasonableness of
the provision, we must find that, owing to some physical
or nervous difference, it is more harmful for a woman

* New York State Department of Labor, Bulletin No. 31,
December, 1906, p. 478 ff. People v. Williams, 115 App. Div.

ii 161

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

work at night in binderies means too often per-
mission to prolong the day's labor. Few binderies
(not more than two or three) have regular night
shifts for women, who begin work in the evening
without having worked during the day. In a far
greater number, girls who work during the day
stay on through the night hours. Probably Katie
Mead had been working since 8 a. m., although
the evidence presented to the court showed only
the single fact that she was found at work at 10:20
p. m. without regard to the length of employment
preceding that moment. Some of the actual in-
stances of overtime work cited in this chapter
demonstrate that the prescribing of a definite rest
period during definite hours of the night is essential
to prevent the joining together of two working
days at the stroke of midnight.

That the long periods of employment resulting
from such a practice have disastrous effects on the
health of women was pointed out by the factory
inspectors of New York in their annual report as
long ago as 1887.* " Inquiry among those females
above the statutory agef who worked twelve and
fifteen hours a day in printing offices, candy fac-
tories, woolen mills, and other manufacturing
establishments/' they wrote in that year, "elicited
the information that the women who labor these
long hours were more subject to fits of nervous

* Second Annual Report of the Factory Inspectors of the State
of New York, 1887, p. 28.

f At that time the law applied only to women under twenty-one
years of age.

.64

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

prostration and debility than those who worked
the normal day of ten hours ; and, as a rule, at
the end of a year, they would not have so much
working time to their credit as those who were
not so overworked." That the factory inspectors
recognized the connection between a prohibition
of night work and the regulation of the length of
the working day, is shown by the fact that this
statement of the bad effects of prolonged periods
of employment was used in their annual report
as an argument in favor of their recommendation
that the employment of any woman, adult as
well as minor, after 9 p. m. be prohibited.

The constitutionality of a law designed to pre-
vent such prolonged periods of employment by
limiting the hours of work of women to ten in a
day was clearly affirmed by the Supreme Court of
the United States in 1908 in the case of Muller v.
Oregon. The argument for the law rested on "the
world's experience upon which the legislation lim-
iting the hours of labor for women is based," and
counsel pointed out that no court can ignore facts
of common knowledge, when deciding whether a
statute is a legitimate exercise of the police power.

" The danger of long hours for women/' wrote the
counsel for the state of Oregon, in his summary of the
statements of authorities in many nations,* " arises from
their special physical organization taken in connection

* Supreme Court of the United States, October Term, 1907, No.
107. Curt Muller, Plaintiff in Error, v. State of Oregon. Brief for
Defendant in Error, Brandeis, Louis D., pp. 18, 24, 28.

165

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

with the strain incident to factory and similar work.
. . . Such being their physical endowment, women
are affected to a far greater degree than men by the
growing strain of modern industry. Machinery is in-
creasingly speeded up, the number of machines tended
by individual workers grows larger, processes become
more and more complex as more operations are per-
formed simultaneously. . . . The fatigue which
follows long hours of labor becomes chronic and results
in general deterioration of health." In affirming the
constitutionality of the statute, the court said,* "The
two sexes differ in structure of body, in the functions
to be performed by each, in the amount of physical
strength, in the capacity for long-continued labor,
particularly when done standing, the influence of vigor-
ous health upon the future well-being of the race, the
self-reliance which enables one to assert full rights, and
in the capacity to maintain the struggle for subsistence.
This difference justifies a difference in legislation and
upholds that which is designed to compensate for some
of the burdens which rest upon her/'

As progress is made in strengthening legislation
regulating the daily hours, it is to be hoped that
the necessity for a prohibition of night work will
also be recognized by courts and legislatures. In
1906, 13 European nations recognized this need
by signing an international treaty which did not
emphasize the idea of prohibition of employ-
ment but stated the situation more positively by

* United States Reports, Vol. 208. Cases adjudged in The Su-
preme Court at October term, 1907. Muller Plaintiff in Error, v.
The State of Oregon, p. 422. N. Y., The Banks Law Publishing
Co., 1908.

166

OVERTIME AND THE FACTORY LAWS

providing for a rest period each night for women
workers. Nothing in the New York decision of
1906 would prevent the possibility of a more fav-
orable interpretation at some future time of a law
technically correct in drawing and supported by
evidence showing its necessity as a health regu-
lation. Such a decision is urgently needed to
strengthen the New York restriction on the
hours of work of women.

The constitutionality of the law regulating the
weekly and daily hours has never been denied in
New York state, and the way is open for a better
enforcement of this law. As a means to this end
it is of urgent importance that convictions for
violations should be followed by the imposition of
fines in the magistrates' courts. Such a record as
that of 1907 is discouraging to factory inspectors;
in that year, 28 convictions were secured for viola-
tions of the sixty-hour weekly law, and in 27 of
these cases the magistrates suspended sentence.*
The result of this use of the suspended sentence,
combined with a misunderstanding of the applica-
tion of the court decision denying the constitu-
tionality of the night-work prohibition, has been
to give a wide impression that the statute limiting
the daily and weekly hours of labor is a dead letter.
On the contrary, an increasing number of court
decisions in other parts of the country are in agree-
ment with that of the United States Supreme

* New York State Department of Labor, Annual Report, 1907,
Part II, p. 19.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

Court in affirming the constitutionality of such
legislation. Indeed, in 1906, more than a year
before the Oregon decision, the Court of Special
Sessions* in New York declared the sixty-hour law
a legitimate exercise of the state's police power for
the protection of the public health. An aroused
public opinion is needed now to give life to the
statute, and to insure more adequate protection for
women in factories.

*New York State Department of Labor, Bulletin No. 31, De-
cember, 1906, p. 484. People v. Howe. See Appendix C, pp. 256-258.

1 68

CHAPTER VII

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE
BINDERY TRADE

THE trade union movement is a vigorous
one in the bookbinding trade, and bindery
women in New York are active in it. They
have formed an organization composed entirely
of women, and managed by their elected represen-
tatives. Its purpose is to establish uniform, mini-
mum standards regarding hours and wages, and
to prevent unfair treatment of any worker in a
union shop. It provides machinery for collective
bargaining between an employer and his workers,
not as individuals but as an organized group con-
trolled by the votes of its members. The convic-
tion behind this movement is that under present
conditions of industry, unless there be a definite
form of organization among the workers no indi-
vidual protest of theirs against injustice will have
any influence.

The bookbinding trade affords a clear illustra-
tion of the difference between the relation of the
craftsman to his customer, and that of the obscure
employe in a large establishment to the president of
the corporation controlling it. It is still possible

169

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

to find a bookbinder, either man or woman, who
works alone without employes and sells his labor
to a purchaser without the intervention of an em-
ployer or a salesman. But while the craftsman
still holds his own, arranges his hours of labor, and
bargains approximately as an equal with the cus-
tomer who pays him for his services, the bindery
girl in the ordinary workroom represents a changed
industrial order. Her position is a reminder that
since the days of Grolier, or Roger Payne, the
forces of industrial revolution have been at work
relentlessly and inevitably, changing methods in
the workroom, enlarging the number of employes,
splitting up their tasks into minute processes, in-
troducing mechanical contrivances, and making
each worker merely a humble part of a large system.
The employer who formerly bound books in his
own workroom has given place to the corporation
manager whose chief duty is to study the book
market. He pays no more attention than is neces-
sary to the control of labor conditions. This
phase of the business is handled by a delegation of
authority from manager to superintendent, from
superintendent to foreman, and from foreman
to forewoman. Furthermore, not only does the
worker occupy an obscure place in this hier-
archy of industry, but the bookbinding trade
itself is but a branch, and that a subordinate
one, of the publishing business.

The position of the worker and the impossibility
of her modifying the conditions of her employment

170

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

are fairly well illustrated by the following descrip-
tion written by an investigator who secured work
in a bindery.

"Reached above address at 8:10 a. m. Large red
brick building, six stories high. Office on first floor.
Group of girls, applying for work, stood around outside
the railing. No talking. Several looked not more
than sixteen or eighteen years; others older. Several
came in after I did, and finally all together we num-
bered 13.

"A young girl from the office came forward and in-
quired, 'How many of you are experienced hands?'
Nothing was said by the crowd but quickly there was a
separation of the wise from the otherwise. She spoke
a word or two to several and then told them to go
upstairs. Five or six went. While waiting, I had taken
advantage of vacant space and was next in order to the
sheep. Girl looked me over.

"'Are you experienced?'

"'I have done pasting, though not exactly this kind/
"Go upstairs/

" I climbed the three or four flights of stairs to the
fourth floor and came upon the group which had pre-
ceded me. A woman was speaking to one of them at a
time. The girl ahead of me had had experience as a
gatherer. I understood that she was sent down to
work. Then came my turn.
' ' You have been here before?'

"'No/

"I thought I had seen you before. In what are
you experienced?'

" ' I have not worked in a bindery before but I have
171

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

had to do careful filing in an office and I think I could
do gathering/

'Thinking and doing are very different things/

"She spoke a word to one of the foremen.

"'You can't do gathering/ he said, 'tilj you've had
experience/

' ' How can I get experience?'

" You'll have to start at the bottom and do folding.
It's piece work and girls who have worked at it can earn
§6.00 to $9.00 a week, but you couldn't/

"'But I want to learn/

' ' Well, you'll have to come at your own risk. Get a
bone folder and be here at 8 tomorrow/ "

In such a case the girl may accept or refuse what
is offered; she cannot modify the conditions. It is
useless for an applicant for work to ask an em-
ployer of 200 women to bargain with her individu-
ally regarding hours of labor, the lighting of the
workroom, or the position of the fire-escapes.
Nor is a protest against too low wages likely to
have any influence unless the employer is hard
pressed for a worker in some particular process.

Even a group of girls in the workroom cannot
successfully make demands regarding conditions
of employment, unless they are part of a larger or-
ganization. A mere spontaneous uprising among
them does not accomplish permanent results, and
may only lead to their discharge. One girl de-
scribed a "non-union strike" in a bindery in which
she had worked. "The girls went out because
they wanted more pay. It was a bad time for

172

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

there was very little work. All the girls, six or
seven, walked out, except one. She was a foreigner
and wouldn't have gone out for anybody. I told
the others I thought it was better to wait until
there was more work, but they wouldn't listen to
me. We lost. The firm took on other girls."

In another non-union bindery a few girls tried
to organize a protest against overtime work.
They had been working late in the week preceding
Christmas, and they did not want to stay through
Christmas Eve, which happened to be a Saturday.
Two of the girls went about the workroom asking
the others to refuse to work overtime that day.
The one who afterwards told the story agreed to
the plan, but as she was feeding the folding ma-
chine she "could not hear what was going on."
Meanwhile the other girls decided not to protest.
Later in the afternoon the forewoman asked
her if she intended to work overtime; she kept
her agreement and refused. The forewoman dis-
missed her. She stopped her machine and told
the other girls that she was losing her job because
they had not kept their word. Two of them offered
to leave, but she urged them to stay. "There
was no use having three people out of work," she
said. But the forewoman appeared again, and
dismissed all three.

It should be remembered that in all these bar-
gains, the state through its labor laws has already
established a standard as a foundation for the
agreement between employer and employe. In

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

these laws, already outlined, hours, sanitary con-
ditions, and minimum age are defined. No manu-
facturer may lawfully employ a child under four-
teen; no child under sixteen may work more than
eight hours in any one day, or at any time except
between 8 a. m. and 5 p. m. No employer may
legally require a girl under twenty-one to work dur-
ing the night hours. No employer may contract
for the labor of any woman for more than fifty-
four hours in a week. Even if only one person is
in his employ, a factory owner must meet these
requirements, and others regarding ventilation,
lighting, and sanitation. But the state has noth-
ing to say regarding wages, and its standard of
hours is much below the trade unionist's ideal of an
eight-hour day. The demand for a living wage
and an eight-hour day is left to be voiced by the
thousands of unions in the many trades organized
by the American Federation of Labor, of which the
International Brotherhood of Bookbinders is a
member.

The International Brotherhood of Bookbinders
was organized in Philadelphia in 1892, by book-
binders who had formerly belonged to the Knights
of Labor. Its membership included binders of
printed books and blankbooks, paper rulers, paper
cutters, edge gilders, and marblers, and workers in
all other branches of the bookbinding industry.
The Brotherhood is now made up of more than
200 local organizations to whom it has issued
charters on application of 10 or more persons

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

working in the trade. The largest of any of these
local unions in the bookbinding trade throughout
the country is the bindery women's union in New
York, known as Local 43 of the International
Brotherhood of Bookbinders.

Local 43 includes women workers in all pro-
cesses of the trade except gold leaf laying.* It
was organized in 1895, with less than 50 members.
In 1906 it numbered 800, in 1909, 1400, and in
1912, 1600. Thus it has doubled its membership
in six years. These six years have been the period
of complete control of the organization by women
officers. Early in this period, in 1907, a per-
manent office was opened at 150 Nassau Street,
New York, and one of the women members was
elected secretary-treasurer to give her whole time
to transacting the business of the union. In 191 1,
the president gave up her work as sewer in a large
bindery, and became a salaried organizer. The
initiation fee is $3.00 and the monthly dues there-
after 25 cents. In addition to paying its regular
per capita tax to the International Brotherhood,
Local 43 meets from these dues the expenses of
its office.

To those who think that trade unionism is syn-
onymous with strikes and picketing and keeping
another out of a job, a visit to the office of Local

* The gold leaf layers in New York are members of Local 22, which
is made up also of men stampers, and is part of the International
Brotherhood. After the convention of the Brotherhood in June,
1912, Local 22 was merged with Locals i and 1 1 in a new Local 3,
but in this chapter the former number is retained.

175

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

43 would bring many surprises. With scarcely a
strike in its history, this local, made up almost en-
tirely of American-born girls, has continued its
quiet, steady work, securing its aims by good busi-
ness methods, by conference and discussion with
employers, by give-and-take adjustments of diffi-
culties arising in various shops, and by inducing
employers to guarantee a minimum rate of pay for
each process of women's work.

It is these local unions in the various communi-
ties which make trade agreements with employers.
The international organization, especially in its
biennial conventions and its trade journal, affords
a means of discussion of interests common to all
the local unions. It handles questions relating to
co-operation with workers in other branches of the
printing and publishing industry, and reenforces
local efforts by the backing of its membership
throughout the country. Its officers are elected
by votes of the delegates from each local. The
number of members in good standing, that is,
those whose dues are paid, in each local, determines
the number of votes to be cast by its delegates.
The power of the central organization is strength-
ened by its control of funds. Four separate per
capita taxes are levied by the Brotherhood, and
must be collected and paid at regular intervals by
each local. For the journal fund men pay 5 cents
a month and women 2 cents a month; for the
funeral benefit fund ($75) both men and women
pay 5 cents; for the organization fund each of the

176

GOLD LEAF LAYERS

A STAMPER
(This man takes the cover after the gold leaf has been laid on)

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

men members pays 10 cents a month, and each
woman 3 cents; for the defense fund, used in time
of strike, the tax is 20 cents a month for men and
5 cents for women; making a total tax of 40 cents
a month for men and 15 cents for women. The
defense fund may only be used to sustain legal
strikes; that is, those authorized by the interna-
tional executive committee. To members parti-
cipating in such strikes the general office pays
benefits of $7.00 a week to a married man, $5.00
to a single man, and $4.00 to a woman.

The trade union label is one of the important
tools for organizing workers in the various bin-
deries. It is the same label as that used by print-
ers and it signifies that the books or pamphlets on
which it is stamped were manufactured in a union
shop. To control its use in each community,
and to discuss other common interests, Local
Allied Printing Trades Councils are formed con-
sisting of representatives of the unions of book-
binders, printers, photo-engravers, stereotypers,
and electrotypers. These councils also have an
international association. It is their purpose to
arouse public sentiment in favor of the label, par-
ticularly on public documents and books used in
the public schools, thus frequently inducing em-
ployers who are seeking such public contracts to
accept union organization in order to have the right
to use the label when customers request it.

Probably the most important event in the his-
tory of the International Brotherhood of Book-

12 ,77

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

binders, one in which Local 43 took an active part,
was the demand for the eight-hour day. It was
made simultaneously on October i, 1907, by local
unions throughout the country and is an excellent
illustration of the relation of these locals to the
international organization.* As early as April,
1907, the executive council of the International
Brotherhood, meeting at Columbus, Ohio, adopted
this resolution :

"Resolved. That this Executive Council declare
for the eight-hour workday on October i, 1907, and
that the referendum be asked to ratify this action; the
vote to be in the hands of the General Secretary on or
before May 30, 1907."

News of this decision was immediately sent to
all members by means of a circular addressed to
local unions Nos. i to 174, for ratification not by
each local as a whole but by referendum vote by
individual members. The result showed 4,906
votes in favor of the demand, and 1,758 opposed.
The next step was to direct each local to send
notices to the employers of their members, asking
for a conference to discuss the inauguration of the
shorter workday on October i , the date set by the
executive council. Thus the demand represented
not an impulsive action, but a carefully planned
move ratified by a large majority, with due notice
to employers. In some sections of the country

* A full account of the campaign was given in the International
Bookbinder, June, 1908, the trade journal published by the union.

I78

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

the fight was a long one, but in New York only
two or three firms finally refused to grant the reduc-
tion in hours. Against these a strike was ordered.

It was at this time that an interesting organiza-
tion of employers was formed in New York, as
the outcome of these conferences with local unions.
This organization is called the Bookbinders'
League and its purpose, as stated in its constitu-
tion, is " to discard the system of making individual
labor contracts and instead to introduce the more
equitable system of forming collective labor con-
tracts." Membership is limited to those who own
or manage union binderies within a radius of fifty
miles of the City Hall of New York. These em-
ployers planned to enter jointly into an agreement
with the bookbinders' unions, instead of making
as many separate contracts as there are firms, and
they aimed also to establish committees for dis-
cussion and conciliation of difficulties, and to in-
sure arbitration of matters which cannot be settled
by mutual consultation.

The first subject for conference was the eight-
hour day, and an agreement was signed by
the Bookbinders' League and each of the local
unions of New York City, providing that after
November 18, 1907, the hours of labor should
be forty-eight per week at the scales of wages then
prevailing. When overtime should be necessary
employes might work an additional six hours in
the week with not more than three extra hours in
any one day, at the same rate of wages, but any

179

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

more overtime must be paid for at time and a
half, — which means the day rate plus 50 per cent.
It was agreed that after a year from the follow-
ing January, all overtime above the forty-eight-
hour week should be paid at the rate of time and
a half. Provision was made for night work by
agreeing that union binderies might run a second
shift of forty-five hours a week at the same rate
as that paid to day workers. A clause was inserted
which provided that union members should be
given the preference in all cases where positions
were open, but that if the unions could not fur-
nish workers the employer had the right to
engage non-union men or women.

This agreement was signed by the six local
unions in New York and by the seven firms that
were charter members of the Bookbinders' League.
The unions then sent copies to all other firms, not
members of the league, asking them to comply
with the provisions regarding hours. With few
exceptions, the agreement was accepted and the
possibility of a widespread strike in New York
was averted.

In other cities, greater difficulties were encoun-
tered. Almost two years later the president of
the Brotherhood in an official letter to the Inter-
national Bookbinder wrote that a strike was still
in progress in Akron, Ohio, but that elsewhere the
eight-hour day had been won. The total cost of
the struggle in all sections of the country was more

1 80

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

than $200,000,* and this was paid by an assess-
ment on all locals, even those that had secured their
demands without a strike. Occurring at a time of
widespread industrial depression, it was a severe
test of the loyalty of the members. Members of
Local 43 paid extra assessments during that period
for the eight-hour workday fund, the greater part
of which was used outside New York.

This account shows how the unions throughout
the country, led by the executive officers whom
they elect to control the international organi-
zation, may unite in a simultaneous demand. It
shows also the way in which the local unions ne-
gotiate with employers in their own communities,
in order to secure certain conditions agreed upon
by the local unions in all other communities. In
case a prolonged strike is necessary, a bindery girl
in New York pays a regular tax to help the workers
in another state secure the eight-hour day which
may have been granted in her place of employment
nearly two years before.

When these demands have been won their en-
forcement must be watched by the local unions.
The locals are responsible also for negotiations re-
garding many matters which are not made the
subject of international agreement. This is il-
lustrated by the additional contract signed by the
locals in New York and the Bookbinders' League
on the same date on which they agreed to grant
the eight-hour day in their binderies. It is so im-

* International Bookbinder, March, 1909, p. 97.
181

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

portant as a peace protocol that it deserves full
quotation.

"The Bookbinders' League of New York and Local
Unions Nos. i, 1 1, 22, 43, 77, 1 19 of the International
Brotherhood of Bookbinders, being desirous of entering
into an agreement for the purpose of maintaining an era
of peace for their mutual advancement and prosperity,
do hereby agree in all instances to consult by committee,
trade court, or otherwise, and to conciliate if possible
any controversies, disagreements, or misunderstandings,
and if impossible to arrive at an amicable understand-
ing, then and in all cases to submit to an arbitration of
such matters — the committees being composed of an
equal number of employes and employers who shall ap-
pear and state their case before the arbitrator, who shall
be elected by mutual consent — and that each body here-
inbefore stated shall upon the signing of this agreement
appoint a committee to arrange a schedule of prices and
hours which shall be known and published as the Book-
binders' League of New York Scale of Wages, and also
that the Locals Nos. i, 1 1, 22, 43, 77, 119 of the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Bookbinders shall be and now are
considered members of the Bookbinders' League of New
York for the purposes for which it has been organized.

"It is also understood that any arbitration must be
settled in three months from the time of the submission
to arbitration.

" In accordance with resolution of Locals Nos. i, 1 1,
22, 43, 77, 119 of the International Brotherhood of
Bookbinders this agreement will be in force for one
year from date."*

* Dated New York, December 31, 1907. New York Department
of Labor, Bulletin No. 36, March, 1908, pp. 26-27.

182

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

In accordance with this plan joint committees
were appointed for conference and conciliation,
and these committees have succeeded in settling
various questions in the shops allied with the
League. For the bindery women in New York the
agreement should have led also to the ratification
of their scale of wages, already prevailing in several
union binderies. Unfortunately this plan to adopt
a uniform wage scale was never carried out by the
Bookbinders' League, except in the case of Local
22, which, as has been explained, includes stampers
(men) and gold leaf layers (women). For gold
leaf layers the minimum rate continued to be $10
a week. In January, 1912, by another agreement
with the Bookbinders' League and other firms this
was increased to $11.

Local 43, through negotiation with individual
firms, had already adopted a scale of wages, July
i , 1 906, which still prevails in 1912. Whether pay-
ment shall be by piece or by week is optional with
the employer, and the wage scale specifies both
the piece rate and the week rate. For example,
for machine folding the rate for week work must
be $10, but for piece work the price per 1,000 is
specified for i2mo, i6mo, and 241110, for double
sheets, and inserted sheets. In connection with
each process is a clause reading, "All extra work,
special prices upon mutual agreement/' Thus,
while aiming at a rate of $10 a week for all experi-
enced workers, it is evident that negotiation is

183

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

necessary to determine the rate for books of ex-
ceptional size or quality of paper.

Obviously, from the nature of the work, it is
more difficult to interpret an agreement regarding
rates of pay than to enforce an eight-hour day.
Books are of many different sizes, and their sheets
are of various grades of paper. Under the piece-
work system it is a difficult task to maintain a fair
rate. When the price is not definitely specified
in the printed wage scale, it must be determined by
some such method, for example, as that described
by the superintendent of one of the union binderies.
According to this plan, suggested by the officers of
Local 43, three girls are put to work at the same
task, one quick, one slow, and one of medium
speed. They are timed, and their combined out-
put is divided by three to determine the average.
The rate of pay for piece-work is then determined
so that with this average output the earnings would
be $10 a week. The quick worker will earn more.
The slow worker will earn less. In either case the
union makes no objection. The superintendent
who described this method cited the case of a
gatherer employed in his bindery, who earned $22
a week, while the girl next to her, paid at the same
rate per piece, earned $7.00. He considered this a
sufficient answer to the objection that trade union-
ism always and invariably keeps the good worker
down, and forces up unduly the earnings of the in-
competent. The superintendent of another union
bindery said that he considered it a profitable plan

184

DROP-ROLL FOLDING MACHINE

AUTOMATIC FOLDING MACHINE

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

to pay the most efficient worker higher wages than
the minimum scale demanded by the union.

Besides hours and wages, other important sub-
jects are included in the scope of Local 43*5 ac-
tivities. These are the conditions of entrance to
union shops, including the regulation of appren-
ticeship and provisions for admitting experienced
workers to the union, certain restrictions as to the
transfer of workers from one process to another,
the granting of legal holidays, attempts to mitigate
the hardships of slack season, and methods of ad-
justment in cases where hand workers are dis-
placed by the introduction of machines.

The subject of apprenticeship has been discussed
by the International Brotherhood, but the dis-
cussion has concerned boys primarily rather than
girls. Local unions have been urged to introduce
a system of indenturing apprentices, and to limit
their number in proportion to the number of ex-
perienced workers in each shop.* Such an arrange-
ment, say the international officers, is of value to
the employer since it insures the continued service
of the apprentice during his term, usually four years,
instead of permitting him to go to another shop
before the employer who is training him can reap
any benefit from such an investment. For the
trade it is an advantage, because it counteracts the
tendency, created by the introduction of machines,
to make specialists in one branch. The effect of

* See Report of United States Industrial Commission. IQOI, Vol.
XVII, Part I, p.li.

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

this specialization on the wage scale was described
by the secretary of the Brotherhood in his report
to the Industrial Commission in 1901.* It "over-
crowds our trade with incompetent mechanics,"
he wrote, "who, in many cases, when out of em-
ployment, will accept a position at a reduced rate
of wages just to obtain work. Such a man not
only drags himself down financially, but others as
well."

The description of the work of women has al-
ready shown the same danger of specialization in
their tasks. To counteract it, Local 43 has made
agreements with union firms limiting the pro-
portion of apprentices to one in every group of
10 experienced women workers in a shop.f No
girl under sixteen years of age may become an ap-
prentice. The term is approximately one year.
During that time the experienced workers are ex-
pected to teach the learner all the hand processes,
but she is not permitted to operate a machine,
doubtless because she might thus reduce the rate
of pay for machine operators to the level of learners'
earnings, and because in acquiring facility in that
one process she might learn nothing else. The
minimum weekly wage for an apprentice is $5.00,
with an increase of 50 cents at the end of six months.
This rate of wage represents a recent union gain.
In 1906 the rate for learners was $3.00. When

* Ibid., p. no.

t The superintendent of a union bindery said that this was not an
arbitrary restriction but a natural one; a larger proportion of learners
could not be properly taught.

186

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

sufficiently experienced, the learner becomes a
member of the union, and receives the union scale
of pay. None but competent workers are ad-
mitted to membership, the executive committee
of Local 43 passing upon each application.

It is in the matter of apprenticeship that Local
43 differs markedly from Local 22, to which, as
has been stated, girls employed in gold leaf laying
belong. These girls are in the finishing depart-
ments of the binderies and usually have no direct
contact with the other bindery women. Young
girls may be employed in this department to "size
and clean" the books, but they may not touch the
gold until formally admitted to membership in the
union as apprentices. The term of apprenticeship
is three years after admission. The wage at first
is $5.00 with 50 cents increase every six months,
until the end of three years when the minimum
wage is $i i . The gold is so precious that employ-
ers are quite willing not to permit inexperienced
girls to handle it until they have done enough
preliminary work in the department to be eligible
to apprenticeship. About 200 women gold leaf
layers are members of the union.

In Local 43 admission to membership is not con-
fined to girls who have been apprentices in union
shops, but includes also experienced workers in
the various processes, who have not before been
union members. For these the conditions of join-
ing are the same as for those who have just com-
pleted their apprenticeship. Each application is

187

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

voted upon by the executive committee, serving as
the elected representatives of all the members.
The union welcomes additions to its ranks and
does not make any attempt, as is often charged
against such organizations, to restrict the number
of workers in the trade. Its agreement with em-
ployers, already quoted, permits the employment
of non-union workers when the union is unable to
furnish workers who are enrolled in its membership.
If these non-union girls are merely temporary
hands they may not be required to join the union,
but if they are permanently employed they must
become members within two weeks after beginning
work in a union shop.

To facilitate the carrying out of the employers*
agreement to give the preference to union mem-
bers, one of the most important duties of the sec-
retary-treasurer is to maintain an employment
registry. A list of unemployed members is kept
up-to-date, and when union employers need work-
ers they are expected to notify the union office.
The workers needed for a particular process are
recommended impartially according to the order of
their application. This system not only serves as
a convenience to employers but helps to relieve the
hardship of irregular employment for the workers.

As a further remedy for slack season, it is ar-
ranged in some union shops that when the work on
hand is insufficient for the normal force it shall be
divided so that each may have a share. Thus un-
employment for an indefinite period is avoided.

1 88

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

On the other hand, as a remedy for overwork, the
union demands a higher rate of pay for overtime,
and double price for employment on Sundays or
legal holidays. On only one legal holiday — Labor
Day — is work forbidden by the union.

One more requirement made by Local 43 is im-
portant. It concerns the transfer of a worker
from one process to another. In the printed scale
of prices the following paragraph appears:

"Any member may be assigned work in any position
other than the position in which she was engaged, in
case of emergency, and if such emergency position car-
ries with it a higher scale than she has been receiving,
she will receive while filling that position the higher scale.
Or a member sent to fill an emergency position at the
lower scale shall not be reduced to the lower scale/'

The reason for this provision, obviously, is to pro-
tect the worker against a reduction in wages be-
cause of transfer to another process, and, on the
other hand, to prevent the lowering of an estab-
lished rate for any process by putting a less well-
paid girl to work at it. In the same spirit, the
union attempts to protect the workers against loss
when new machines are introduced. For example,
in three union binderies in New York five women,
who formerly were hand gatherers, are successfully
operating the gathering machines, the mechanism
of which is said by employers to be more com-
plicated than that of any machine operated by
men in the trade. The tendency is to employ

189

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

men operators for this work, but in each of the
cases cited the women's union secured the oppor-
tunity for a woman at the same wage that a man
would receive, $18 a week.

It is in making such adjustments that the con-
structive business ability of Local 43 has been
shown. A shop stewardess is appointed in each
workroom. The workers complain to the steward-
ess in case there is any violation of the agreement
regarding hours, wages, or other conditions. If she
fails to adjust a grievance through conference with
the foreman or forewoman, the union officers take
it up, and if the difficulty prove serious, it may
finally be referred to the international executive
council. Usually the adjustment is made in the
workroom. If it cannot be adjusted in any other
way the local, with the approval of the interna-
tional officers, may order a strike, and the expenses
of such a contest are borne during the first two
weeks by the local, and afterwards by the inter-
national defense fund.

Local 43, as has been stated, has i ,600 members,
and the women members of Local 22, the gold
leaf layers, number about 200. The total number
of women in the trade is about 6,000. Out of
more than 200 shops counted in this investiga-
tion, those in which the women are organized
number about 40. Nevertheless, the union shops
are important ones, and the union influence is
greater than their numbers would indicate, — a
fact demonstrated by the rapid extension of the

190

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

eight-hour day to non-union shops after it had
been won by union efforts.

Workers are often content to reap the benefit
of unionism without sharing in its burdens, and
there are employers who see in this fact the possi-
bility of keeping their employes out of the union
by maintaining union conditions. Again and
again employers say, "We have union conditions
and don't bother with the union." As in many
other trades, one hears employers who are opposed
to dealing with an organization of their workers
express their opinion in such phrases as, " I won't
be dictated to," or " I wish no interference from
the workers in running my own business." It
is significant that the superintendent of an es-
tablishment which has had long experience with
trade unions in several branches of the print-
ing industry expresses the conviction that only
by frank conference and discussion, such as the
union makes possible, can an employer hope for
real efficiency in his workroom force. He pays a
high tribute to trade unionism forwomen, especially
as he has known it in the methods of Local 43.

The indifferent attitude of some women toward
unionism is illustrated by a letter from a bindery
worker to whom an investigator had sent a book-
let of information about the union. "I do not
belong to any of the unions," she wrote, "as I
don't think it necessary. We are not obliged to
belong yet. At the same time, it is nice to be
up-to-date and prepared for the occasion."

191

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

This girl worked in a shop where some school
books are bound. Her implication that she might
be obliged to join was due to the fact that pressure
is often brought to bear to have the union label
put on books which are public property. That
the agitation for the use of the union label is not
more of an aid than it actually is to the organiza-
tion of bindery women is due in part to the in-
difference of men in the trade to the welfare of
the women. Some of them are quite content to
consider a shop a good union place and to permit
the use of the label on its products, if the men
are organized, even when not one of the women is
a union member. Furthermore, a union printer
will sometimes put a label on a book, although he
has had it bound in a shop where neither men nor
women are union members. This defeats the
purpose of the label as a means of unionizing all
the workers in the shop which uses it.

Employers agree with the women unionists that
the growth of Local 43 has been due far more to
the efforts of the women than to any co-operation
on the part of the men. Indeed, in disputes over
borderline processes, such as the operation of the
gathering machine, the men have been, as one
employer expressed it, "unbelievably hostile to
the women."

To judge of the results of trade unionism by com-
parison between union and non-union shops is
never fair, since, fortunately, betterment of condi-
tions usually has an influence extending beyond the

192

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE BINDERY TRADE

establishment in which it is first secured. Indeed,
the trade unionist sometimes declares openly, to
the amazement of the public, that the improve-
ment of conditions is of less importance to him
than recognition of the union, — by which he means
putting into operation the machinery of the col-
lective bargain. Conditions in union binderies
in New York, however, prove that the bindery
women's union is an important factor in improving
the conditions of women's work in the trade. In
regulations regarding the training of learners, in
the shortening of the normal hours below the
limit which the state has been able to establish by
legislation, in the gradual enforcement of a mini-
mum wage scale, and in the protection of indi-
vidual women against unjust and unfair treat-
ment, it has accomplished results more important
than any yet secured for this trade through legis-
lation.

193

CHAPTER VIII
TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

CURRENT discussions of industrial educa-
tion are emphasizing the fact that the com-
munity through its public schools is re-
sponsible for developing the efficiency of the work-
ers in its industries. When these discussions are
based not on general theory but on concrete knowl-
edge of such conditions as prevail, for example, in
the bookbinding trade, the real difficulties in the
way of meeting this responsibility become clearer.
For more discouraging than the lack of skilled work-
men, frequently deplored in America, is the lack
of demand for skill in the old sense of power com-
pounded of manual dexterity and intelligence.
Efficiency in a manual occupation is made up of
three elements, brain, hand, and time, but it is
the change in the relative importance of these
three which is at the root of the present baffling
problem of industrial education.

Of this change, women's work in bookbinding is
an excellent illustration. To plan the binding of a
book from beginning to end, to have margins of the
right width, to sew with the right sized thread for
the right weight of paper, to design an appropriate

194

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

cover expressive of the spirit of the text, to choose
the proper leather, and to treat it scientifically, —
to neglect no detail which belongs to a solid, sub-
stantial, appropriate piece of work, requires a high
order of brain and artistic ability. But the girl
who folds the sheets in a modern bindery is not
asked to choose the paper, or to plan the width of
the margins, and very probably she will never see
the cover of the completed book. She is required
to fold so that the printing on one page will exactly
coincide with the printing on the page which faces
it, thus insuring even margins after the cutting
machine has done its work; and she is expected to
work fast. As the manual element is reduced to
its simplest terms, — mere rapid repetition, — the
brain element controlling the hand is not at a
premium. For feeding a machine, knowledge of
mechanical devices is desirable but not essential.
Bookbinding for women is a skilled industry so
organized as to be carried on in many departments
by unskilled workers. It does not require the
efficiency of the craftsman, and therefore, it does
not demand of its novices that they meet the test
of a thorough training designed to develop the
sort of intelligence in which educators are in-
terested.

The restrictions on entrance to the trade are
not severe, and they do not keep out workers who
may not be adapted to the demands of the occupa-
tion. They are three-fold, — the law regulating
the employment of children, regulations prescribed

195

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

by the trade union, and rules adopted by indi-
vidual employers.

The New York state law, governing bookbind-
eries in common with all other factories, forbids
the employment of any child who has not yet
reached the fourteenth birthday, and requires that
all children between the ages of fourteen and six-
teen be provided with employment certificates.
To secure the certificate, the child's age must have
been proved satisfactorily, she must have reached
the required grade in school (prescribed as 58 in
New York City), and have attended at least 130
school days in the twelve months preceding her
fourteenth birthday, or the date of her application.
The trade union already described names six-
teen as the minimum age of apprentices, and limits
their proportion in relation to experienced workers
in a ratio of one to 10. Employers' methods vary
widely. Of 207 who stated a definite policy re-
garding learners, 142 are willing to employ them,
while 65 engage only experienced workers. Of the
firms willing to employ learners, 1 16 gave definite
information regarding the minimum age: 54 will
employ no girls under sixteen years of age, three
preferring workers seventeen years old; and 62
will employ girls of fourteen or fifteen. No defi-
nite educational requirements are found. Only
one employer expressed a preference for grammar
graduates.

Thus the barriers at entrance are not high enough
to prevent the employment of a young girl of four-

196

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

teen, who has selected the occupation with no
idea of its future opportunities for her, but merely
because she happened to notice a bookbinder's ad-
vertisement for learners the day she secured her
working papers. She does not know then that a
learner in the bookbinding trade is not necessarily
an apprentice practicing tasks which will lead to
more highly skilled work; she is ignorant of the fact
that she may be merely an unskilled worker needed
for certain processes which do not prepare her for
other parts of the trade. The two types of learners
may be working side by side in the same bindery.
As the training is often so casual and differs so
markedly for different girls, it can be accurately
described only by relating the comments and ex-
periences of individual workers.

" I'm never laid off, because I can turn my hand
to a good many different things," said one girl
who considered herself an all-round worker, and
took pleasure in telling how she had learned her
trade. She went to work in an edition bindery
when she was sixteen years old. Her sister was
also a learner there. "When we first began," she
said, " we were waiting on everybody in the place."
When the feeder of one of the folding machines
stopped work at 5:15, this girl would stay until
5:30 to practice operating it. "Most girls," she
said, "won't stay after hours to practice. It's a
girl's own fault if she doesn't learn. If they put
her on cutting off, she ought to watch the machine
and then she'll learn to sew. The forewoman in

197

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

our bindery teaches a girl if she's bright. Of
course, if she isn't it doesn't pay to bother with
her. But I'll admit it's discouraging when you
first go into a bindery. You must have such a
knack about everything. And you must be strong
and not nervous, for you're liable to be hurt by
the machines. The work they give learners, like
knocking up, is heavy, and you're on your feet all
day long." Her main work was knocking up the
folded sheets. Gradually she learned to feed the
point folding machine and that became her spe-
cialty. It was necessary to learn hand folding,
in order to detect errors in the work of the ma-
chine. She learned to gather by hand and to size
and clean the books in the gold laying department,
a process not usually assigned to "general bindery"
girls. She learned to examine and to wrap the
finished volumes, and for a while was the head
wrapper. The method of learning was obviously
not systematic. At first the forewoman showed
her how to do the work. Then she learned by
watching and by seizing every opportunity to
practice. She has never had a chance to paste, to
collate, or to operate the sewing machine, yet she
is considered an experienced bindery girl.

"The girls show you," said another, who had
begun work at the age of sixteen, before graduating
from the public school, and had been employed for
four years in the same edition bindery. She had
"jogged" or "knocked up" the sheets folded by
machine, "cut off" books from the sewing ma-

198

HAND FOLDERS

THE POINT FOLDING MACHINE

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

chine; folded by hand; "pulled out" sheets from
the gathering machine; and finally, as her main
line of work, operated the wire-stitching machine.
Occasionally she had gathered and pasted by hand
and sewed by machine, but not often enough to
learn these processes. The time it takes to learn
"depends on yourself," she said. "If you don't sit
yourself down at the machines and try them, no
one else will ever sit you down at one. And you
have to be willing to do work that you don't like."
Stories like these, repeated many times by workers,
gave the impression that the learner herself was
the only one interested in her training.

Some of the girls occupying the best positions
in the trade have been strict specialists. An
operator of a sewing machine, who has been a
bindery worker for four years, understands no
process except sewing. As a beginner she cut off
the books after they were sewed, and thus learned
the working of the machine and became an oper-
ator. In contrast to her experience, her aunt who
has worked six years in the trade has never oper-
ated a machine. She has straightened sheets,
folded and inserted by hand, and wrapped books.
She and her niece work in the same bindery, but
neither could take the other's place without be-
coming a learner again.

Even though the training received by these
women has been neither systematic nor thorough,
they have all been learners in the sense of having
before them the possibility of advance, as they be-

199

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

came more expert in the processes which they had
learned. Another type of learner is the inexper-
ienced worker, employed in busy seasons to do un-
skilled work which leads nowhere. Sometimes
one of them passes on to a more skilled process.
Many of them are casual workers, whose presence
serves to complicate the problems of the bindery
trade. As a group, they may be called the un-
trained bindery workers. "We take on learners
for temporary work," said the owner of a large
pamphlet bindery. "Then we weed them out."
This is the meaning of such advertisements as
these which appear frequently in the newspapers:
"Ten bright, quick girls; $4 weekly. Apply Sat-
urday morning, ready to start work." "Wanted:
30 girls as learners: must be over 16: $4. 50 weekly.
Call ready to work." In encouraging casual work,
the bindery trade must be held in some measure
responsible for creating drifters among working
girls in New York. Securing no foothold in the
bindery trade, they wander from one occupation
to another.

Two examples show trade histories of this kind.
One girl folded patterns one year, earning $6.00 a
week; worked in a department store one week,
earning $3.00; folded by hand in a bindery three
months, earning $5.00; and then was "laid off-
slack"; folded by hand in another bindery two
weeks, at $6.50, "laid off — slack"; idle four to six
months; folded and inserted circulars in the mailing
department of a publishing house three weeks, a

200

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

temporary job for a wage of $7.00; folded pamph-
lets, edge work, at $1.00 a day, but "didn't like
it" and stayed only two days. Her record reads:
" Has worked at other places for a short time. She
leaves home about 6:45 a. m. to answer advertise-
ments. She and her mother live alone in a fur-
nished room and she is greatly in need of work. She
would like to stay in the bindery trade if work
were steady."

Another began work as a cash girl, working two
months for a weekly wage of $3.50, "laid off-
slack." She then worked one year in a magazine
bindery, helping the operator of the wire-stitching
machine, and earning from $3. 50 to $4.00. She left
"for a better place." She "took money out of
tissues" in a bank note house a year and a half,
earning $6.00 until she was "laid off — slack." She
packed candy two months during the Christmas
rush, earning $5.00 per week. Then she was out
of work ten months. She returned to pack candy
one month at $5.00, and was again "laid off — slack."
She folded and pasted pamphlets two weeks in a
printing office, where the bindery work was only
temporary. She took sheets from the gathering
machine in a magazine bindery, earning a wage of
$1.00 a day only eight days in the month. She
had worked five years altogether, and her maximum
earnings in any week were $7.00.

Such casual work seems to be most frequent in
pamphlet binderies. The opportunities for begin-
ners, however, are even more restricted in maga-

20 1

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

zine binderies, with their periodical rush of work
and their extensive use of machinery. In one
magazine bindery, "learners" are employed to
separate the printed sections when they have been
folded together. This is called outserting. Some-
times the learners stack the folded sheets in
bins, where they are kept until needed for the
process of gathering. Sometimes they pull out
the gathered sections from the machine. Five of
the six magazines which are bound in this shop
are folded on the printing presses, so that folding
machines are needed for only one periodical, and
hand folding is rare. No pasting, no sewing, no
gathering by hand nor collating is necessary. The
forewoman described two learners who began work
there eight or nine years ago at $4.00. They
learned to operate the wire-stitching machines, and
are now earning $ 1 3 piece work. " They're among
the fortunate ones," she said. " I can't teach all
my girls wire-stitching; there are only 16 ma-
chines." She is one of those who spoke of the
changes in the bindery trade, saying, "I'd never
advise any relative of mine to go into it."

Workers and employers generally agree that an
edition bindery is the best place for learners. The
work is more exact and careful than in pamphlet
binding. But in this branch of the trade no
definite plan seems to have been developed except
in union binderies, where the experienced workers
feel a responsibility toward apprentices, and are
interested from the trade union point of view in

202

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

preventing premature specialization. This is the
case in one of the edition binderies frequently de-
scribed as "a good place to learn." The number
of apprentices is limited, according to the union
standard, thus preventing the encouragement of
casual employment. " If we took more than that,"
said the superintendent, "we could not teach them
properly." The minimum age is sixteen. No
written agreement is made on either side, but ac-
cording to the policy of the trade union, learners
are expected to stay until they have become ex-
perienced, thus enabling the employer to be reason-
ably sure that they will not leave before they begin
to make returns for the trouble of teaching. " If
a boy should leave us during his apprenticeship,"
said the superintendent, "and go to another union
shop, we could prevent his working." The rule for
girls is less rigid, and apprenticeship less formal.
That methods of training vary even here is shown
by the comments of several workers who learned
the trade in this establishment.

"They take only a few apprentices here," said
one girl. "Then they are sure to teach them.
But not every girl learns the whole trade. Some
do only hand folding, some do only sewing,
others know all the branches. I never learned to
sew by hand or by machine. The girls on the
sewing machines don't want to have too many
girls learn their trade." She knocked up, counted,
carried and "drew off" from the whip-stitching
machine. As a learner she received $2.50. This

203

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

was ten years ago. Her wages were increased
50 cents every six months, until she received $5.00.
Later her principal work was operating the wire-
stitching machine, for which she was paid, by the
piece, from $10 to $15 a week. Later still she
helped to clean and repair books, cancelling soiled
sheets and pasting, so that "no one could tell they
had been repaired."

"First I was straightening up the books for the
wire-stitching machine," said another. "Most
learners knock up for the folders. Then for two
days I was on the machine for pasting covers on a
Sunday school journal. Then I wanted more pay,
so they said they'd try me on other work, and I
knocked up for a folding machine. There were
two boxes to empty, and my pay was $4.00. Then
they gave me work on the gathering machine, and
afterwards taught me hand folding. You can't
make out on that. Two old ladies do it. After-
wards I was put on piece work, inserting, hand
folding, and outserting. Then I did hand pasting,
because the pasting machine broke. When I had
learned I made up to $8.50 piece work."

Three or four others described their training in
this bindery. One had been a box girl for a year,
and knew no other process. Her sister learned
within the first year hand work, — pasting, insert-
ing, gathering, and collating. Another began her
career by jogging the sheets to prepare them for
the wire-stitching machine. Later she became a
wire-stitcher. Sometimes she did hand work,—

204

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

folding, inserting, and covering. She had tried
to learn to use the sewing machine by occasional
furtive practicing "when the other girls were mak-
ing tea/' but she was far from becoming a sewer,—
the part of the trade which most bindery girls pre-
fer. Thus, even in this large bindery, with its
reputation as "a good place to learn," chance
seems to control the training of the apprentice.

Many experienced workers say that large estab-
lishments do not give so good an opportunity to
learn as do small shops. "In the big binderies
each girl has her own work, and the new ones don't
get any chance. They teach you one thing and
keep you at that." On the other hand, the train-
ing received in small establishments may have dis-
advantages. A bindery as well as a worker may
be a specialist, and in such specialized workrooms
a learner's opportunities will be even more re-
stricted than in a large bindery with its subdivi-
sion of work. "Our workroom is not a good place
for learners," said a woman employed in a small
pamphlet bindery. "We haven't any machines.
We do only hand folding and pasting and insert-
ing." Larger places give the advantage of a wider
choice. " I watch the learners," said a forewoman
in charge of 150 workers, "and when I see that a
girl takes to one process more than to another, I
teach her that."

Employers in the bookbinding trade are gener-
ally rather indifferent toward the problem of train-
ing women workers. A few prefer to employ the

205

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

inexperienced in order that they may train them
to do the work according to the special methods
of their own workrooms. Only in this way, they
declare, can they secure efficient service. Others,
however, cite many reasons why they will employ
none but experienced hands.

"We bind only one weekly periodical. We have no
miscellaneous work to give to learners/'

"Our season lasts six to eight weeks at a time. We
couldn't get anybody to teach learners. It would take
too much time."

"We have no time to teach and the girls haven't the
patience to learn."

" It is a poor proposition to take learners. As soon
as they know anything, they leave."

"As soon as boys and girls get a little smattering of
experience, they want to go somewhere else where they
can get more money. They don't care about learning
the trade, and they spoil a great many sheets."

" We can't bother with learners. Rents are too high.
Sometimes we take inexperienced girls, 'kids' we call
'em, for extra orders and keep them about two months."

"We do not like to take learners. We'd prefer to
have them learn in a small establishment where they
have more time to teach."

"We haven't time to teach," said the owner of a
bindery where three girls were employed.

" We can't take learners. Every worker must count
in so small an establishment."

" I'm too small to take them. I haven't the capital.
I have to take girls who know how to work, and who
can get my orders out in the shortest possible time."

206

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

" We have not the floor space."

"It's not practicable to take learners with so much
competition as there is in this business. They spoil
the work. And then most of it is done by machinery.
It takes time to learn how to manage a machine/'

"In these days of short hours, we can't curtail pro-
duction by teaching learners/'

"All our work is rush work. We use machinery and
have no time for learners/'

Thus, conditions in the trade complicate the
learner's problem. I rregular employment, special-
ization, rush work, the piece-work system, chang-
ing methods, and the increasing complexity of
machinery, all tend to discourage the inexper-
ienced worker, and to make the expert less in-
clined to take time to teach. As a result of these
influences, two important problems of training are
characteristic of the bindery trade; the problem
of the specialist in a task which makes small de-
mands on the worker's intelligence, and the prob-
lem of the untrained, unskilled casual worker.
For the community to discharge its responsibility
toward these workers, as the advocates of indus-
trial education demand, will be no easy task.

This responsibility for the education of workers
begins, of course, when the future worker is a child
in school. A large majority, 89 per cent of the
bindery girls interviewed, have attended school in
New York, 56 per cent the public schools, and 33
per cent parochial schools. Only 2 per cent stated
that the last day school attended was in a foreign

207

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

country, and 3 per cent had been to school in some
section of the United States outside New York.
Six percent did not report. Only 10 per cent had
stayed in school until they were sixteen, while 67
per cent left at the age of fourteen or younger, and
20 per cent left when they were fifteen. Three per
cent did not report. The group of course in-
cludes those who went to work several years ago,
before the present provisions of the child labor
law were operative. Of those who attended public
schools in New York only 9 per cent graduated
from grammar school, and none had gone to high
school, while 65 per cent had left while in the
seventh grade or earlier.

Fuller information about the previous schooling
of bindery girls was secured from another inves-
tigation, made by the Committee on Women's
Work, in the public evening schools in Manhattan,
Bronx, and Brooklyn in 1910-11. In the course
of it, girls in these schools filled out record cards
giving detailed information about their previous
training in day school. Among these cards were
the records of 144 bindery girls. The results*
shown are the more interesting as they can be
compared with the facts for other working girls,
who answered the same questions.

Among the girls who named bookbinding as their
occupation a very large proportion, 96 per cent, re-
ported that the last day school attended was in New
York, 62 per cent naming public schools and 34 per

* For tables see Appendix B, pp. 250-253.
208

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

cent parochial or private. Nearly half, 45 per cent,
had attended school eight years, and 25 per cent
had remained longer, a better showing than for girls
in all manufacturing pursuits grouped together.
Sixty-four per cent left at the age of fourteen or
younger, and only 10 per cent stayed in school
after the sixteenth birthday. Although eight
years is considered a sufficient time for the "normal
child" to graduate from the elementary grades, 70
per cent of these bindery girls had failed to graduate.
Measuring their progress in school by the average
time taken to complete one grade, allowing one
year for a grade, only 21 per cent of those who re-
ceived all their school training in New York pub-
lic schools were normal, 9 per cent were rapid, and
70 per cent were slow, compared with 59 per cent
slow among girls in all trades. Not only has their
schooling been brief, but for some reason they have
not kept pace with the curriculum. Another fact
of interest was their preference for manual work
in evening school; 53 per cent had chosen such
classes.

These figures show that the schools are handi-
capped by too brief a contact with these girls,
that they become workers at an age when they
cannot be expected to develop the skill of an adult
craftsman. Too early a start in an occupation
may be equivalent to a false start. It may con-
demn a worker to inefficiency who might later
have been more capable of directing her own prog-
ress. This is the first step in industrial educa-
14 209

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

tion, — to keep the children out of industry until
they are equal physically, at least, to its de-
mands.

Other questions, however, are being asked con-
cerning the desirability of definite training in
processes of work either in preliminary trade
schools or in continuation classes. As an example
of the problem involved in this last phase of in-
dustrial education it is worth while to outline the
information gathered by the Committee on Wom-
en's Work at the request of a member of the Board
of Education of New York. The inquiry was made
for the purpose of answering a specific question as
to the desirability of forming a class in hand bind-
ing in a public evening school. The results, con-
sidered in relation to the other data of the inves-
tigation, show concretely how baffling is the prob-
blem of industrial education of girls in a trade like
bookbinding.

The immediate cause of the inquiry was a re-
quest for supplies for a class in bookbinding to be
carried on in connection with art work in leather
in an evening high school. Behind this request,
however, was the fundamental question of whether
or not an evening class would be of practical ser-
vice in equipping women for any branch of the
bookbinding trade, or in increasing the efficiency
of those already employed in it. This question
was discussed with art binders, including a woman,
who manages her own bindery and teaches the
craft, with owners and superintendents of edition

210

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

binderies, pamphlet and magazine binderies, and
with officers of the bookbinders' union. Not one
believed that the plan was feasible or desirable.
Their comments will show their reasons.

The superintendent of a large edition bindery
thought that, at a comparatively small expense,
it might be possible to equip a room in a school
building with cutting machine and wire-stitching
machine, and girls could then be taught to handle
sheets for pamphlets and to paste on the covers.
A printer might give this practice shop the con-
tract for binding a magazine, but "the trade"
would probably object. A large plant might be
developed if the department of education would
have its books bound in this classroom. It would
be difficult to get employers to co-operate as they
do in some countries, because business men here
are too much interested in "the dollar mark" and
in immediate profit. But even if all these diffi-
culties were removed, he believed that a more
serious objection would remain; that after the
girls were trained there would not be enough open-
ings for them in the trade. In his opinion, the
demand for women's labor in this industry is less
now than the supply.

Another summed up his objections tersely by
saying that in edition binding the hand work done
by women is so simple that there is nothing to
learn, while the machine work would not be prac-
ticable in a school. In "extra" or art binding
the union will not permit women to do anything

211

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

but fold or sew. Equally final and even more
brief, was the statement of a superintendent of a
magazine bindery, that all the work done by women
in a magazine bindery is unskilled labor. " There
is nothing to teach/' "The only way you can
teach a person a trade," said another, "is to put
her in a workroom."

A member of a firm which has departments for
edition binding and for pamphlet and magazine
work, considers that school training in bookbinding
is not practicable for girls because their work in
the trade requires mere manual dexterity and be-
cause the demand for them is decreasing as ma-
chinery develops.

" Even if you had the machines," said another,
"it wouldn't really be the trade." He did not
think that it was necessary or practicable to teach
the trade in a school, but he believed that the
schools could fill a need by giving a more thor-
ough general training in reading and writing.
Bindery girls need this knowledge to enable them
to put together the pages of books properly.

It was not machine binding, however, but hand
binding which was to be introduced into the pro-
posed class in evening school, and although only
2 per cent of the bindery women of New York are
employed in this branch of the trade, it had seemed,
at first glance, more feasible to train women for
hand work of this sort than for machine binding.
But inquiry among men and women familiar with
conditions in hand binderies brought replies quite

212

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

as discouraging as those in regard to the large
machine binderies.

One woman, who manages an art bindery, ex-
pressed the opinion that women would do well to
learn more about the processes which they are
now permitted to carry on in binderies, such as
sewing, pasting, and mending. She believed that
mending books might in time offer a field for
women's work, especially if this training were part
of the equipment of librarians. She pointed out that
accurate judgment is required in sewing, pasting,
and other processes in commercial hand binderies.
Women must know what kind of sewing is needed
for each book, taking into consideration the thick-
ness of the paper, the size of the book, and the
character of the binding. For this they must be
taught how to think. They cannot merely pick
up the knowledge through casual work in a shop.
She did not favor, however, an evening school class
for bookbinders. To teach the artistic features of
the trade would be useless, because women are not
permitted to do this work. To teach the processes
now recognized as women's work is not desirable,
because of the very limited demand for women in
hand binderies.

A member of a firm whose craftsmanlike work
has won a well-deserved and wide reputation,
pointed out that certain conditions affecting the
trade as a whole must be considered in relation to
this question. Actually fewer books are being
bound by art or job binders in New York today

213

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

than fifteen years ago. Binders are taxed for
their imported raw materials, such as leather and
paper, while many bound books come in free. Pub-
lishers in the United States are sending some books
abroad to be bound. As the finest class of work
has been taken away from the commercial binders
here, they have lost efficiency through lack of
practice, and are turning out a grade of work lower
than their potential abilities might justify. For
skilled workmanship in the men's department,
New York binderies depend more and more upon
foreign-born workers, who have learned their trade
before they came to the United States. Prac-
tically no apprentices are now being trained here.
One cause of this is that our apprenticeship law
is too loose to hold a boy for a sufficiently long
period to make his training profitable to the
employer.

Yet in spite of the need for skilled workers, this
man did not believe that an evening class for
women would be desirable. It might be well to
teach women to sew better, or paste better, but,
on the whole, he thought that this trade was not
one which offered good opportunities for women at
present. They would not be allowed to touch any
processes in commercial hand binderies, except
those they are now doing, and these are too limited
to justify trade classes in public schools. If
women are to succeed at all in bookbinding, they
must look forward to owning their own shops.
Otherwise those who make any effort to appro-

214

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

priate men's tasks will come into conflict with
the men's trade union. He pointed out that the
first question to be considered was the attitude
of the trade union regarding such classes. They
would have the power to put obstacles in the way,
and their attitude on the question of women's work
would demand careful consideration.

The president of the International Brotherhood
of Bookbinders and the president and the secretary
of the women's Local 43 defined for us the trade
union attitude toward industrial education. The
fundamental question which the trade unionist
asks is, what effect will a trade school have upon
wages? If a trade class results in turning out
workers whose position in the labor market makes
more difficult the trade union effort to maintain a
standard wage, then organized labor opposes it.
This is the ground of their opposition to prelim-
inary training which tends to make a class in
school the substitute for apprenticeship. But,
knowing the workmen's handicap through lack of
opportunity to practice the whole trade, the union
strongly favors plans for classes which give supple-
mentary technical education* to workers already
employed in the trade.

* "Men cannot know too much about the means by which they
make a living. And it is well that they should learn all there is to
know," said ex-President Prescott of the International Typographical
Union in an address before the Brotherhood of Bookbinders at their
annual convention in 1908. He had described the typographical
union's educational scheme, correspondence courses for printers, and
said that it was "in part an effort to save that trade from the blight
that has settled on bookbinding in some localities." "In the book-
binding trade," he said, "we see the deplorable effects of specializa-

215

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

These officers of the bookbinders' union said
that they would oppose a class in bookbinding for
girls in public evening schools for two reasons:
first, because they would fear that the organization
of such classes would tend to turn workers into
the shops in too large numbers; and second, be-
cause they considered that specific conditions in
the trade made it undesirable to train women.
Rapid changes in machinery are a menace to
women's work. The women's department is
minutely subdivided so that they are specialists
in particular processes. The job binderies are so
few in number and their work so limited that they
are not worth considering as a field for women.
As to the relation* of men's work to women's work,
the trade union officers declared that the Brother-
hood demands equal pay for equal work, and that,
so long as this principle is followed, they do not
object to the employment of women in any pro-
cesses commonly carried on by men. In southern
cities women are employed as forwarders, finishers,

tion. The foreman of one of the best binderies there (Chicago) told
me that there were at least eleven sub-divisions of the trade, and that
the great majority of men were unable to do anything but their re-
spective specialty. Collectively and individually the bookbinders
would be advancing their best interests if they had a better grasp on
the trade, were not the doers of one simple process. The monotony
incident to such work brings on mental decay. What you can do
. . . is problematical, but you should do what you can. There
is certainly an opportunity to advance the branches of stamping and
finishing. This is where craftsmanship of a high order can be brought
to play. And craftsmanship can be taught. If designing were more
general among bookbinders the field for their work would expand.
There is an immense field in the decorative leather work which might
be done in the bindery." — Reported in the International Bookbinder,
Vol. IX, p. 191 (June, 1908).

216

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE

or rulers, and in New York some women are doing
work commonly done by men and receiving the
same wages. Without trade union organization,
however, "female labor means cheap labor, and
therein lies the danger/' Finally, although they
agreed that the public evening schools might well
be utilized to give supplementary technical educa-
tion to girls, they were convinced that trade con-
ditions in bookbinding made such a class as had
been proposed undesirable.

These statements, made by men and women
who know trade conditions so well, and yet view
them from different angles, are a practical sum-
mary of the problem of industrial education for
women in this trade. Their opinions show the
complex factors which the schools must consider,
and the different points of view which ought to be
represented in any effort to solve the problem.

The immediate steps to be taken are more
obvious than any ultimate solution. Real success
will depend upon the possibility of effective co-op-
eration on the part of workers and employers.
The trade union would be a powerful ally in
efforts to keep children in school until they are
sixteen, for already it excludes younger children
from work in union binderies. To exclude these
children from all binderies by legislative enactment
would be an important step in industrial education.
More careful systems of training in the workroom
would be an asset for employers as well as a benefit
to the workers. Further than that the problem can

217

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

be solved only by experiment. Such experimental
plans might include opportunities to be offered in
evening classes not to practice the trade but to
gain instruction in fundamental principles, whether
it be the construction of a machine or the treat-
ment of leather. Co-operation of this sort be-
tween the schools and the industry might do much
to test the best methods of developing efficient
workers. Meanwhile, it is well frankly to recog-
nize that extreme specialization, constant stand-
ing, prolonged hours of work, irregular employ-
ment, and low wages produce inefficiency more
rapidly than the schools would be able to train
skilled workers.

218

CHAPTER IX
SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

THE conditions of women's work in the book-
binding trade fail in many particulars to
measure up to the standard which public
opinion has begun to demand. About i o per cent of
the women workers are under sixteen. Careful su-
pervision of learners in the workroom is rare. Pro-
cesses are so subdivided as to deaden mental facul-
ties rather than to encourage growth in intelligence.
As yet the subject of industrial education is dis-
cussed only with reference to the men in the trade,
and little attention is given to the problem in
the women's department. Operating complicated
machines, repeating one process hour after hour,
standing at work all day, carrying loads of heavy
paper from one part of the shop to another, stoop-
ing frequently to lift the folded sections of books,
pressing a foot pedal rapidly and incessantly, or
handling the completed volumes to wrap them
for shipping, — these are tasks which would in-
evitably fatigue girls even though the day never
lasted longer than eight hours. Yet only a fourth
of the women in the shops investigated had as
short a working day as eight hours, and 44 per

219

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

cent worked longer than forty-eight hours in a
week. In fully three-fourths of the binderies the
girls worked overtime at some season of the year.
More than half of the statements collected re-
garding this overtime showed an excess above the
limit allowed by law. Moreover, flagrant instances
are recorded of the employment of women through-
out the night.

The average wage reported by the group of
girls interviewed by us was $7.22 a week, while the
average reported by census enumerators in 1905
was even lower, $6. 1 3. Yet it has been seen that
women bookbinders are members of households
in which it is difficult to make ends meet, and in
which heavy responsibilities fall upon the women
wage-earners. Their earnings are reduced still
lower by reason of irregular work. Only about a
third work in establishments reporting steady
employment. Nearly three-fourths of the work-
ers interviewed had frequently lost time in slack
seasons. Only one in eight reported no time lost
for any cause, while nearly a third reported a loss
of one to three months during the year, and more
than a fourth lost three months or more. An esti-
mate of the approximate yearly income of bindery
women shows that nearly three-fourths receive
less than $400 in a year, in spite of their finding
employment in other occupations when they
have no work in bookbinding. An income of less
than $400 a year is distinctly below the generally
accepted estimate of $9.00 a week as the minimum

220

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

wage on which a woman can support herself in New
York City.

Yet this is a composite picture. It shows
neither the worst nor the best conditions in the
trade. The standards prevailing in the best es-
tablishments show that improvement in condi-
tions is an entirely practical possibility already
tested. In contrast to the bindery in which hand
folders work in a gallery less than six feet from the
ceiling and must themselves fetch the sheets from
the main workroom below, is the establishment in
which women work in comfortable quarters and
men or boys carry the sheets of books to their
tables. In one bindery the accumulated stock
piled high shuts of? light and air from the workers,
while in another care is taken to keep the stock
in a part of the workroom where it will not ob-
struct ventilation. One employer provides a
dressing room, supplied with hot and cold water
and large enough for the girls to have space and
privacy in which to change their clothing after
the day's work. Another fastens a few hooks for
hats and coats on the wall in a corner of the work-
room, but gives no further thought to the work-
ers' comfort. Similarly, one firm provides chairs
of the right height for convenience and comfort,
while another carelessly purchases stools without
backs or foot-rests.

One employer engages large numbers of very
young workers whom he keeps only for a season,
while another makes sixteen the minimum age in

221

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

the workroom, and employs inexperienced workers
not as temporary hands for a rush order but as
learners who have a future ahead.

One firm squeezes the wages down to the lowest
that workers will accept, while another adopts a
definite standard of $5.00 a week for learners with
an increase of 50 cents every six months until they
become experienced, and thereafter a rate calcu-
lated to permit an "average" worker to earn $10
a week. One employer makes every effort to
steady the seasons, and, if reduction in the force
is inevitable, he arranges a part time schedule or
lays the workers off in relays for definite, short
periods, thus mitigating to a certain extent the
hardships of unemployment. Another takes on
new hands for every sudden order with the delib-
erate intention of dismissing them as soon as the
work is finished.

The prolonged working day, which gives the
bindery trade so unenviable a reputation, is not by
any means a universal practice. 1 1 is found chiefly in
establishments which specialize in the binding and
mailing of magazines. On the other hand, there
are magazine binderies which have never found a
twenty or twenty-two-hour day necessary. One
firm habitually requires overtime work at certain
seasons, while another has deliberately tried to
avoid overtime and has succeeded in reducing it
to a minimum.

The impression made on the reader by this
description of the employment of women in bind-

222

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

eries must depend on his outlook, and the stand-
ards which he has in mind. The diverse points of
view from which industrial conditions are observed
result in different standards of judgment. Thus
the bindery worker, if she read these chapters, will
probably draw conclusions according to her own
experience. She has doubtless found nine hours a
long day, overtime exhausting, and $7.00 a week
too low a wage to live upon. She will hope, there-
fore, to see these conditions changed to meet her
own needs. If she is a member of the trade union
her standard will be definite — an eight-hour day,
extra compensation for overtime, and $10 a week
for experienced workers — and she will see in the
statement of facts about her trade an added argu-
ment for the extension of trade unionism. The
employer too will probably base his judgment on
his own experience, gauging the facts presented
by the conditions prevailing in his establishment.
Viewing wages primarily as an item of expense to
himself rather than as the source of income to his
employes, he will be disposed to be tolerant of con-
ditions as he finds them. General readers will
differ in their conclusions as they differ in their
knowledge of industry and their ability to read
the facts about a trade with full appreciation of
their significance in relation to the welfare of
the workers. In spite of differences in personal
judgment, however, a growing fund of scientific
data about industrial conditions throughout the
country is making possible the formulation of

223

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

practicable standards. Their application toa trade
will depend not upon the various conclusions of
worker, employer, and the general public, but upon
an impersonal, scientifically determined basis of
fact.

A notable instance of the use of scientific
evidence as a basis for establishing a standard for
women's work occurred in 1907, in a case argued
before the highest court in the land. A laundry
owner in Oregon was convicted of a violation of
the state law which prohibits the employment of
women more than ten hours a day. He appealed his
case to the United States Supreme Court on the
ground that such a legal restriction was not in
accord with the freedom of contract guaranteed to
all citizens by the federal constitution. His argu-
ment was met by counsel for the state in a brief
based not on a theoretical discussion of the rights
of citizens nor on an oratorical appeal on behalf
of working women, but on an impressive and
scientific collection of the results of the world-
wide experience which has led nations to set a
legal limit to daily hours of work.*

* In a marginal note to the opinion of the court appears an epitome
of the material showing the general trend of this world-wide opinion.
After a summary of legislation bearing on the question in this country
and abroad, reference was made to "extracts from over ninety re-
ports of committees, bureaus of statistics, commissioners of hygiene,
inspectors of factories, both in this country and in Europe, to the
effect that long hours of labor are dangerous for women, primarily
because of their special physical organization. The matter is dis-
cussed in these reports in different aspects, but all agree as to the
danger. It would, of course, take too much space to give these
reports in detail. Following them are extracts from similar reports
discussing the general benefits of short hours from an economic

224

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

This array of authorities the court found con-
vincing. The relation to the welfare of the race
of legislation enacted to protect the health of
women was thus summed up by the court: "That
woman's physical structure and the performance
of maternal functions place her at a disadvantage
in the struggle for subsistence is obvious. This is
especially true when the burdens of motherhood
are upon her. Even when they are not, by abun-
dant testimony of the medical fraternity, continu-
ance for a long time on her feet at work, repeating
this from day to day, tends to injurious effects
upon the body, and as healthy mothers are essen-
tial to vigorous offspring, the physical well-being
of woman becomes an object of public interest
and care in order to preserve the strength and
vigor of the race." The court held "that woman's
physical structure, and the functions she performs
in consequence thereof, justify special legislation
restricting or qualifying the conditions under
which she should be permitted to toil. . . .
. . . We take judicial cognizance of all matters
of general knowledge/'*

aspect of the question. In many of these reports individual instances
are given tending to support the general conclusion. Perhaps the
general scope and character of all these reports may be summed up
in what an inspector for Hanover says: 'The reasons for the reduc-
tion of the working day to ten hours — (a) the physical organization
of woman, (b) her maternal functions, (c) the rearing and education
of the children, (d) the maintenance of the home — are all so impor-
tant and so far-reaching that the need for such reduction need hardly
be discussed.' " United States Reports, Vol. 208. Cases adjudged
in the Supreme Court at October term, 1907, pp. 419-420. New
York, The Banks Law Publishing Co., 1908.
* Ibid., pp. 420, 42 1 .

15 225

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

In presenting evidence to the court important
use was made of the results of laboratory research
into the physical effect of fatigue, as a sound basis
upon which to enact legislation. Scientific men
in many countries have proved beyond question
that getting tired is a physiological process equiva-
lent to taking poison into the system. The poison
is eliminated and the tissues restored only by a
period of rest. Furthermore, rest must be taken
before fatigue has become so great as to result in
an exhaustion from which recovery is difficult.
The application of these facts to the regulation of
the hours of work of women in industry is obvious.
The public welfare demands that work shall cease
and rest be permitted before the worker becomes
exhausted. No enlightened employer of women
can fail to welcome the scientific conclusions
already reached on this subject, and to take them
into consideration in determining the hours of
work in his establishment.

That the determination of a definite standard
of wages is likely to be increasingly sought from
now on is indicated by such state action as the re-
cent passage in Massachusetts of a bill providing
for the "voluntary" establishment of minimum
wage boards. For this purpose a permanent
state commission has been appointed and its
duties thus defined in the law:*

" It shall be the duty of the commission to inquire
into the wages paid to the female employes in any oc-
* Massachusetts Labor Bulletin, No. 92, p. 58, June, 1912.
226

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

cupation in the commonwealth, if the commission has
reason to believe that the wages paid to a substantial
number of such employes are inadequate to supply the
necessary cost of living and to maintain the worker in
health."

If the inquiry into any industry should convince
the commission that inadequate wages are paid to
women, a minimum wage board is to be appointed,
whose members shall be representatives of the
general public, of employers, and of workers in
the occupation in question. This board is to
determine the minimum wages to be paid to
women in the industry, but its determinations
are to be recommendations which employers are
not legally bound to accept.

This law is indicative of a growing demand for
the betterment of conditions, a demand in which
all classes of the population are now joining, how-
ever great may be their differences of opinion as
to methods of reform. Reports of the meetings
of the National Association of Manufacturers
show their interest in the prevention and relief of
work-accidents, in a comprehensive plan for indus-
trial education, and in an effort to bring "manufac-
turers in every department of industry to a higher
realization of their social responsibility to their
employes and the public."* The American Fed-
eration of Labor works through its affiliated unions
in many trades to prohibit the employment of

* National Association of Manufacturers. Report of Seventeenth
Annual Convention, May, 1912.

227

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

children under sixteen, to establish an eight-hour
day in all trades, and to secure a living wage for
every worker. State legislatures are rapidly fall-
ing into line in the enactment of laws regarding
child labor, the introduction of industrial educa-
tion in public schools, the regulation of the hours
of work of women, compensation for accidents, and
the maintenance of sanitary conditions in facto-
ries.

The attitude of a group of men and women
whose work brings them into close contact with
social and industrial conditions throughout the
country, is also significant. In June, 1912, at
the National Conference of Charities and Cor-
rection, the committee on standards of living and
labor presented a platform of industrial mini-
mums. This declaration dealt with wages, hours,
safety and health, compensation and insurance,
housing, and the term of working life. A living
wage was the first plank, and it was defined as an
amount sufficient "to secure the elements of a
normal standard of living, to provide for educa-
tion and recreation, to care for immature members
of the family, to maintain the family during periods
of sickness and to permit of reasonable saving for
old age/'* The platform demanded eight hours
as the maximum working day for women and
minors in all industries, an uninterrupted period
of at least eight hours' night rest for all women
workers, and the prohibition of the employment

* The Survey, xxvm : 5 17 (July 6, 1912).
228

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

of children under sixteen years of age in any wage-
earning occupation. Another section called for
the prohibition of the employment of women
in occupations which require constant standing.
Of irregular employment, the platform declared
that "any industrial occupation subject to rush
periods and out-of-work seasons should be con-
sidered abnormal and subject to government re-
view and regulation/' These provisions were
based on the principle that with knowledge of the
facts of work and "the recent discoveries of physi-
cians and neurologists, engineers and economists,
the public can formulate minimum occupational
standards below which, demonstrably, work is
prosecuted only at a human deficit."

Within a few weeks after this conference a new
political party adopted an industrial platform
containing practically the same planks. Thus
its members registered their conviction that the
time was ripe to make standards like these a party
issue with a wide appeal to the whole people.

All these expressions of opinion of manufac-
turers, workers, and citizens are signs of the times,
a promise of better things to come in industry.
Following the general statement of principles,
however, is the more difficult task of applying
these principles in all the various fields of em-
ployment into which the world's work is divided.
For this application, detailed studies must be
made of conditions in each occupation. Reform
must necessarily come not in industry as a whole,

229

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

but trade by trade, since that is the way economic
life is organized. Moreover, each trade has its
peculiar problems.

To establish proper standards in the bookbind-
ing trade would require certain definite changes,
which may be thus summarized:

Prohibition of the employment of children under
sixteen.

Careful supervision of learners to insure
thorough training.

Co-operation with the public schools in efforts
to supply additional opportunities to those who
have left school at the age of sixteen.

Limitation of the hours of work of all women to
eight in a day, without permitting overtime.

Provision for a definite rest period of at least
eight hours during the night for all women, irre-
spective of age.

Planning the work so as to obviate the ill effects
due to specialized tasks and to guard against the
dangers peculiar to the trade.*

Provisions for adequate light, ventilation, and

* By allowing change of occupation and posture, by providing
chairs with backs, and, if high, with foot-rests, by employing porters
to carry the heavy sheets from one part of the workroom to another,
and by so adjusting the height of the work-tables to the height of
the chairs as to make it possible for hand workers to sit at work
without loss of the speed on which their earnings depend; by cover-
ing the stock to prevent accumulation of dust, by so placing the
books and paper as not to obstruct ventilation, by sprinkling the
floor before sweeping every day, or by using vacuum cleaners, by
guarding machines likely to injure the hands or fingers, by doing
away with the use of foot pedals, and by requiring that machines be
constructed in such a way as to make stooping unnecessary, and to
permit the operator to sit at work.

230

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

space in the workroom and dressing rooms, and
for proper toilet facilities.

Protection against fire assured.

Resolute efforts to prevent unemployment, and
to steady the seasons.

Payment of adequate wages, with full recogni-
tion of the fact that the public welfare requires a
living wage for every worker.

To raise all binderies to the level here indicated
will require the co-operation of employers, work-
ers, and the public. That the suggestions are
practicable is proved by the fact that almost every
one of them has been tried to some degree in at
least one bindery in New York. No establish-
ment combines them all. The whole trade cannot
be suddenly transformed, but a few important
changes which would mark a decided advance
should now be made general throughout the trade
by means of legislation.

No revolutionary reforms are necessary to make
state intervention practicable. To strengthen the
present laws regarding women's work in factories
in New York, and to enforce them strictly, would
markedly improve conditions in the bookbinding
trade.

Many persons now believe that the employment
of children under sixteen ought to be prohibited
in any occupation, and especially in connection
with machines, or in lifting or carrying heavy
weights. It seems obvious that a child of four-
teen or fifteen should not be employed for such

231

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

heavy work as that required in binding books.
In any case, the present legal provision requiring
that no employment certificate shall be issued
unless the child "is in sound health and is physi-
cally able to perform the work which it intends to
do" should be more actively enforced.

The law regarding the hours of work of women
ought to be amended for the benefit not only of
bindery women but of all women at work in facto-
ries. Night work should be prohibited in order
to assure an adequate rest period in every twenty-
four hours, and to make possible the strict en-
forcement of the fifty-four-hour law. The excep-
tion to the nine-hour law permitting a maximum
working day of ten hours should be repealed.
Prosecutions should be in a reasonable ratio to the
number of violations, in order to prove to em-
ployers that the law is alive. Public opinion
should express itself strongly enough to reach the
magistrates' courts, in order that the results of
convictions may not be nullified by an unwise
use of the suspended sentence.

A sufficient number of medical inspectors
should be appointed to begin the collection of
data on which to base extensive legislation for the
protection of the health of working women. In-
sufficient ventilation, dusty floors, dusty stock,
and all other unwholesome workroom conditions
should be corrected by definite laws scientifically
determined, and not weakened, as at present, by

232

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

provisions giving inspectors discretionary power
in such vital decisions.

Legislation, however, is not sufficient without
provision for inspection of workrooms and strict
enforcement of law. The state labor department,
charged with this task of enforcement, must be
well organized and supplied with an adequate
number of carefully chosen inspectors. The
force of women inspectors should be increased
especially to look after the welfare of women work-
ers. Undoubtedly they could secure from women
employes evidence of violation of the laws more
readily than is possible for men inspectors. On
the efficiency of the labor department depends the
success of the state's effort to protect the health
of women workers.

The chief task is to bring home the sense of re-
sponsibility to those who have the power to deter-
mine conditions. The fact that more than half the
bindery workers in New York City are employed in
less than 10 per cent of the binderies indicates the
power of a few employers and their responsibility for
the welfare of women in the trade. It is in the large
binderies, however, that members of the firm who
have the power to make improvements have the
least knowledge of the conditions of employment
in their establishments. They appoint a super-
intendent whom they hold responsible for two
main results, — economy in running his depart-
ment and satisfactory workmanship. An investi-
gator in search of facts about wages, hours, and

233

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

seasons soon learns to seek out the superintendent
or the foreman rather than the head of the firm,
whose knowledge of these vital facts is likely to be
very hazy. No marked change in conditions will
be possible until the men at the top require super-
intendents to look after the health and comfort of
their employes, and to pay them decent wages.
If the small group of important bookbinding firms
of New York would positively adopt this practice,
they would benefit at once more than half the
workers in the trade. They would also set an ex-
ample which would have its influence on other
establishments.

But a firm and its superintendent cannot meet
the problems single-handed. In regulating labor
conditions they are dealing with vital human
issues, which cannot be determined by hard-and-
fast methods. Good team work depends upon a
spirit of fellowship. The worker's loyalty to the
firm and his interest in good workmanship can
be secured only if it be possible for employer
and employe to meet in a democratic way for
discussion of conditions which cannot be wisely
determined if the point of view of either be dis-
regarded. As conditions grow more complex this
exchange of ideas also grows more complicated.
The trade union has developed to give organized
expression to the interests of employes. It gives
the workers who are active in it a broader view
of trade conditions than their personal experience
alone could afford. It is a means of securing

234

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

the adoption by many firms of the standards
accepted by a few.

Both employers and workmen, however, are at
the service of the man who gives them orders,
whether he be a private customer, a printer, or a
publisher. The unreasonable demands of these
customers are too often responsible for deplorable
conditions of employment. Overtime work and
slack season are both traceable to the publisher.
When this responsibility is clearly recognized, it
will be reasonable to expect publishers to take
effective action to meet some of the problems of
bindery work. Through books and articles on
industrial topics, publishers of books and editors of
magazines are trying to improve industrial con-
ditions. To apply the teaching of these books
and articles to the binderies where they are bound
would be a practical demonstration of great value.

But employer, worker, and customer are not
the only persons responsible. While conditions in
the best binderies in New York show the prac-
ticability of reasonable standards, the contrasts
cited in other binderies indicate quite as clearly
the danger of leaving standard-making to the in-
dividual employer. Enlightened employers will
keep ahead of community action, but the commu-
nity must see to it that none shall fall below the
minimum conditions required for the health of
the workers.

Furthermore, the interest of the community
should make possible a just balance between the

235

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

demands of worker and employer. The worker
aims to secure higher wages to make possible a bet-
ter standard of living. The employer is anxious to
keep down expenses. The public interest would
combine and balance these two views, pointing
out that production cheapened at the expense of
decent living conditions for the workers in reality
costs too much. Without such a balance as the
community alone can give, there is too often
blind conflict of interests instead of a just and
reasonable adoption of proper standards. Public
interest is the vital factor needed to focus atten-
tion on conditions of employment and to establish
throughout the trade the standards which are
essential to the health and happiness of thousands
of working girls. The task is large and complex,
but it is also an encouraging one. It challenges
the best thought and effort of reader, writer,
binder, printer, publisher, and worker.

236

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

OUTLINE OF INVESTIGATION

Three record cards* 5 x 8 inches in size were used in the
field work, one for the record of a worker, one for the
record of a workshop, and one for the worker's report
of conditions in the shop in which she was employed.

The card designed for the record of a worker pro-
vided information on three large subjects, — personal
history and living conditions, education, and work.
The investigation of personal history and living con-
ditions included such facts as:

Nativity, and date of birth.

Relationship to head of family, indicating whether the

girl was boarding or living at home.
If living at home,

nativity of father and mother, and the dates when they
came to New York City;

number and ages of children at home;

other persons living with family;

other wage-earners in family, their occupations and
weekly earnings;

condition of apartment, number of rooms, and rent.
If boarding, where and at what cost.
Disposition of earnings, amount given to home, weekly

carfare, and yearly savings.

Membership in organizations, — trade union, church, and
club.

* See facsimiles of card records, pp. 245 to 248.
239

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

The information sought regarding the worker's
schooling included:

Last day school attended, place, date of leaving, and
grade reached.

Trade or technical school attended, courses taken, and
dates of attendance. This was interpreted broadly to
include any supplementary education, such as courses
in public evening schools, or in business schools.

The investigation of the girl's work history included
the following data:

Age at beginning work.

Weeks out of work in the past year, and the reasons for this
loss of time.

Comparison of regularity of employment in the past twelve
months and in the preceding year.

Training received in a bindery, by whom given, kind of
work assigned, and length of time required.

Trade career, with a record of each position in chrono-
logical order, stating dates employed, time held, name
and address of firm, trade, kind of work done by the girl
interviewed, weekly wages, how the position was found,
reason for leaving, and the time idle after leaving.

More detailed information was then secured regard-
ing conditions in binderies in which the worker had
•been employed recently enough to insure accuracy.
This material, recorded on a card to be filed under the
firm name, afforded a valuable basis for the investiga-
tion of establishments. The data gathered on this
card included, besides the name and address of the
firm:

Name and address of the worker and the dates of her em-
ployment in this bindery.
240

OUTLINE OF INVESTIGATION

Kind of work done by her.

Posture at work in these various occupations.

Weekly wages.

Fines imposed or any charges made for supplies.

Weeks out of work in past year, or during the time of em-
ployment here, if it had been less than a year.

Hours of labor, including time of beginning work in the
morning, time of ending work in the evening, length of
noon recess, Saturday working hours, and total hours of
labor daily and weekly.

Overtime, with full information regarding number of
evenings of overtime in a week, closing hour, time al-
lowed for supper, total daily and weekly hours inclusive
of overtime, rate of pay for extra work, and the season
of the year when the hours of labor are thus prolonged.

Home work,* if any, kind, hours spent on it and earnings.

Workroom conditions, lighting, lunch-room privileges,
kind of dressing room provided, and cleanliness of
toilets.

In interviewing an employer the same kind of in-
formation was sought, but covering the whole estab-
lishment rather than the conditions that affect a single
worker. The information asked of employers was as
follows:

Kind of work done by women, with a description of the
nature of the processes, posture required of the worker,
and the qualities needed to make her successful, whether
neatness, strength, experience, speed or skill.

General range of weekly wages for each process, and
whether calculated according to piece or time. The
tendency here was to state the best possible wages for
each class of work.

* These card records were all designed for investigation of other
trades as well as bookbinding. As a matter of fact, home work given
out by binderies is very rare.

16 241

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

Total normal force of women employed, and minimum age.

Employer's opinion of the desirability of trade school
training for this work.

Seasons, including time of employment of the maximum
force of women and the usual number employed during
that season; time of employment of minimum force and
the number at work then.

Hours of labor, in detail, normally and when working over-
time.

Home work, if any; number of workers and kind, whether
families, contractors, or institutions.

Workroom conditions, lighting, ventilation, space for
workers and cleanliness.

The following record of one of the girls interviewed
will best illustrate the sort of information which we
were seeking and the method of securing it. She was
employed in a bindery in which conditions were un-
usually good.

We shall call her Mary Brown and give her address as 142
Greenwich Avenue, New York, third floor, back, south. An
investigator visited her home one afternoon and talked with
her grandmother and her sister, who was also a worker in a
bindery. In the evening the visitor returned and talked with
the girl herself. This gave an opportunity to check and
verify the statements made in the earlier interview. The
girl had left the fifth grade of a public school in 1905, three
years before she would have graduated. She had been
enrolled in a public evening school in two successive terms,
once in the "regular course," and once in a dressmaking
class, but she did not stay through the term in either class.
She went to work at the age of fourteen, working a year as
cash girl in a department store, first receiving a weekly wage
of $3.00 and later $3.50. Her older sister who had worked in

242

OUTLINE OF INVESTIGATION

the same store found the "job" for her. Mary left because
there was "no chance to advance."

A friend found her work in October, 1906, in the Western
Bindery, where large editions of books were bound. As a
learner, she folded sheets by hand and emptied boxes. The
other girls showed her how to do the work. There was no
definite time of learning. In three and a half years, how-
ever, she had had only an occasional opportunity to try to
operate a machine, and her weekly earnings had been increased
only from $3.50 to $5.50. Her employment had been steady
during the past twelve months. In the preceding year she
had been without work or wages two weeks when the firm had
moved.

Her grandmother was the head of the household. The
mother was dead, and the father had deserted his family.
Every member of the family had been born in New York.
There were five girls at home, ranging in age from twelve to
twenty-two years. The other wage-earners were three
sisters. One was a learner in a bindery, earning $3.50 a week.
Another worked in a hotel laundry, earning $7.00 a week.
The third was out of work at the date of the visit. She also
had been working in a hotel laundry but the steam made her
ill. The combined earnings of the three girls at work were
$16 a week. An uncle sent them $10 a month. The grand-
mother, although nearly blind, did the housework, and
managed to make ends meet. The six members of the family
lived in four rooms in a tenement built since the New York
housing law has demanded a certain minimum of light and air.

Mary gave all her earnings to her grandmother, who
returned to her small sums needed for clothes and incidental
expenses. She walked to work and carried her lunch, so spent
no money for carfare or lunches. She was a member of the
Roman Catholic Church. She belonged to no club, nor had
she joined the union in the bookbinding trade. Her name
had been given to the investigator by another girl employed
in the Western Bindery. In the same visits, a similar record

243

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

was secured of the trade history of Mary's younger sister who
was a learner in the bookbinding trade.

The facts which Mary gave about the Western Bindery
were recorded on another card and filed under the name of the
bindery. Her chief work was to empty the boxes into which
the folded sheets were dropped by the machine. Frequent
stooping was necessary and the work was very tiring. She
had been fined for being late but was "only scolded," not
fined, for spoiling sheets. Her work had been steady. Her
working hours were from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a half hour
at noon, eight hours daily, forty-eight weekly. In summer
she worked from 8 a.m. to 5:20 p.m., in order to stop work on
Saturday at twelve noon. In busy season she had worked
overtime once a week only, and then not later than 7 o'clock,
a ten-and-a-half-hour day. Some of the older girls stayed
two evenings a week. These hours represented unusually
good conditions. She had never taken any work home.
There was no lunch room. The girls ate their lunches in the
workroom, and made tea on a gas stove in the dressing room.

A month later the investigator visited the bindery and
asked questions to verify and supplement the information
given by this worker, concerning the kind of work done by
women, weekly wages, training of learners, desirability of
trade school training, methods of securing workers, seasons
of employment, hours of work, overtime, home work, and the
conditions in the workroom. Mary was at work in the
bindery at the time of the visit, and her statements about
processes of work were found to be correct.

244

>; to

to t+

v> c

£ to j

C
1

REASON FOR
LKAVINCI

o o

0 C

i: <s

85 >
JK T5
O CS

O 0

o »-

C o>

0) SH

2 «J o!

1 a

nH >r(
A <D

t 0 4>
s, O C

HOW
FOUND

r C -H

X U.

r-
1

?li

2
:

o c

*«

^fe

4
CO

Regular course

Dctuuikli 19(

1 Dept. Date adtuis.

es. Indefinite.

•

• c

o
TJ

i *

? c
• c

'. C

CO
Z

i
i

•H

eti

t
0

•
4

h Avenue

IS 3

¥-

Name of schoc

g, empty box

00
rH
1

5 c

i i

i >

0)
0

Department
Store

Edition
Bindery

s 1

•H

1
D1

>r NATIVITY U.S.

c C

~ to
\ co

•*

•?
i

OQ *•

*# V.

cc
<o

K ^

•3 o

£ y
o C

OF FAMiLYGranddaughts

•

c
: ca

\ CO
i C

i i

O
M

S
•

i
i
i

25 1
£ 1

c
c

*" a a

x S

LATIONSHIF

1 1

^o^

o
1

*~"

• 3

245

x: :
c

! *

§
i

I £*

5 •

? "§

» s
I

! •>

I "S

ii :

ir5

5 'g

i I

r a

i
i I

o —

••H T3 b
i4 -H -H 3

0) 03 CQ

^Sg,

W rH O

« rH

x: o)

<D 05
•SSS rH*

• •HO

,^g

C-H
CB -HrH

a 0] IM

S ra

£5?

C«»
O

to OQ x:

0J «-> -P

l^'

•

•H *0

X^l

OT3

SSfio

05 CD tt>
rH ti

ECO
C-H 4) X5 •
^ O TJ
TJX1 0) fc,

*8>

•P 05

G .

X fi

•Pr-T

to t.

•H-H

bboo o t, d)

o o c TJ s >>
^ ^ -H . t, <D en

**s

X! 0 3J " tt)-H

00 S *H U X! rH Tl
3 fc O O-PXI
«JO«^XJ-HO)^

eoa

o o
a c

<Pt«a>O

• • 4>

o to -P

OT <u ^» 03 ^ °<'t3 I

05 rH TJX! O 0) 3
X> IU rH W) C C • 33 0>

^•^•^03^^^ 'OXI

>>x: 05 OXJ O CrH

OS *» Xj «»0-»J T> -H «-H O >»•

eo -Pa) C*&x>o V.TJ

X! * *O (« O jktlX} C.VH

Li-PrH <DOOOJOO>O

0-HrHt, COO^rHOOO XI

X! S <-H O 00 CO X) -4)

-P ® a« a a dm

oc xj a> o <M as -H o 3
B tn •** I X! fcCn ^30

b 0-H O «>
O «> H £ -H .H

^•H 0) 05 05 d

^^ • 05 3
>-^ SO C O

o to

L, -H

246

• 5

s «

| ]

P C

1 £

! e

i EH

•H

•»J

•O

£*

! *°

! §

C
JC

c
c
o

5 a
) £

' |

0 *

; -

rt ^^

f a

c "o

f 5

•5

• 1

1 C

t»

fl'

5 ^

«^

0 X

•

E
C

j
i

•
i

(

c
1

C Ot

£+

8 **

u«

0
H

•H

•r

E-i

S I

tt1

•

i/)

"ft!

»H

5
K

I1*

i
|^

fti
O

I s

a p
a JQ

03
(1

i 1

S S3

{•*

! :

, H

1 *

J *3

•

* <

•t ^

H$f

J t

Z *

2 f

S i

•

! :

h
I ^

1 I

o IB

i s

o •

! *

• CO

•i

a
1

S S

2 i

e*.

ii
I

a
(/

! *"*
\ *

i *

3 c
In*

i £

i
i

H K

»• a

I H

;

! c

u. C
0 9!

! I

I
I

POSITION A1

I WEEKLY WAI

9)
X

t- 4

5 z

o
1

ITJ.WI »DLt IN l«

HOURS OF L

i OVEMTIME

! S

o 3
• u

* 3

z
o

s
1

247

** ••

•g.

248

w *M

S*S

5s f

s •£

*!S

c s

i«J

: c

•a

I '

I !

•I

z 0

" o

a
o

APPENDIX B

SUPPLEMENTARY STATISTICS

The following statistics were secured from card
records filled by working girls attending public evening
schools in New York City in the winter of 1910-11.
The figures show certain facts about the schooling of
women employed in bookbinding compared with those
at work in all trades. A total of 4,5 19 records of women
in all trades were tabulated, but the number varies in
different tables. The largest number, 3,917, appears in
Table B; on this point, "last day school attended/'
602 did not supply information. In compiling all the
other tables, we omitted 827 records of girls attending
two schools from which data on these points were
insufficient for tabulation. Of the remaining 3,692
records tabulated, 842 did not supply information for
Table C, and 603 did not supply information for Table
D. Among the 3,692 women, 66 of the 2,094 whose
last attendance was in New York public day schools,
and who were, therefore, considered in Table E, did not
supply information on this point. In considering the
rate of progress in school, the tabulation was limited to
a group of 1,562 who had attended New York public
schools only. Of these, 145 did not supply information
for Table G, and 163 for Table H.

249

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

TABLE A.— SCHOOLS PREVIOUSLY ATTENDED BY 142
WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING AND BY
3,692 WOMEN IN ALL TRADES ATTENDING PUBLIC
EVENING SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY, 1910-1911*

SCHOOLS PREVIOUSLY ATTENDED

WOMEN IN
BOOKBINDING

WOMEN IN
ALL TRADES

Number

Per
Cent

Number

Per
Cent

New York City public schools
Private, parochial, or corporate
schools in New York City
Schools in the United States, out-
side New York City .
Schools in foreign countries .
None

92
64

4
4

65
45

3
3

2,184
630

1 80
845
34

5
23

aOf the 144 women employed in bookbinding, 2 did not supply
information on this point. As some of these women had attended
schools of two or more different types the figures in the table add
to totals larger than the number of women from whom information
was secured.

TABLE B.— LAST DAY SCHOOL ATTENDED BY WOMEN
EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING AND BY WOMEN
IN ALL TRADES ATTENDING PUBLIC EVENING
SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY, 1910-1911a

LAST DAY SCHOOL ATTENDED

WOMEN IN
BOOKBINDING

WOMEN IN
ALL TRADES

Number

Per
Cent

Number^

Per
Cent

3
24

New York City public schools .
Private, parochial, or corporate
schools in New York City
Schools in the United States, outside
New York City ....
Schools in foreign countries
None

i
4

i
3

2,213
476

103

937

1 88

Total

'37

100

3.917

100

aOf 144 women employed in bookbinding, 7 did not supply in-
formation on this point.

t>The inconsistencies between the figures of this column and the
figures of the corresponding column of table A, are due to a differ-
ence in the number of women who supplied information. See intro-
ductory note to Appendix B.

250

SUPPLEMENTARY STATISTICS

TABLE C— YEARS OF ATTENDANCE AT DAY SCHOOL OF
WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING AND OF
WOMEN IN ALL TRADES ATTENDING PUBLIC
EVENING SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY, 1910-1911a

YEARS IN SCHOOL

WOMEN IN
BOOKBINDING

WOMEN IN
ALL TRADES

Number

Per

Cent

Number

Per
Cent

Less than 5 years ....
5 years and less than 6 years .
6 years and less than 7 years .
7 years and less than 8 years . „
8 years and less than 9 years .
9 years and less than 10 years .
10 years or more .....
None

24
8

212

135
270

585
958
446
210

7
5
9

Total

125

IOO

2,850

IOO

aOf 144 women employed in bookbinding, 19 did not supply
information on this point.

TABLE D.— AGE AT LEAVING DAY SCHOOL OF WOMEN
EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING AND OF WOMEN
IN ALL TRADES ATTENDING PUBLIC EVENING
SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY, 1910-1911a

AGE AT LEAVING SCHOOL

WOMEN IN
BOOKBINDING

WOMEN IN
ALL TRADES

Number

Per

Cent

Number

Per
Cent

17
48

23
8

I
I

Under 14 years
14 years and under 15 years
15 years and under 16 years
1 6 years and under 17 years
17 years and under 18 years
18 years or over
Never attended school

10
2

ii
53
25

''708
244

Total

128

IOO

3,089

IOO

aOf 144 women employed in bookbinding, 16 did not supply in-
formation on this point.

251

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

TABLE E.— GRADE AT LEAVING NEW YORK PUBLIC DAY
SCHOOLS OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING
AND OF WOMEN IN ALL TRADES ATTENDING
PUBLIC EVENING SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY, 1910-
1911a

GRADE AT LEAVING SCHOOL

WOMEN IN
BOOKBINDING

WOMEN IN
ALL TRADES

Number

Per

Cent

Number

Per
Cent

Below the fifth grade ....
Fifth
Sixth
Seventh
Eighth
Graduate'of elementary school .
High school (not graduates)
High school graduates

14
21

18
18
6

18
26

22
22
7

78
197

393
527
197
499
133
4

4
10

10
24
7

Total

100

2,028

100

aOf 85 women employed in bookbinding, whose last attendance
was in New York public day schools, 3 did not supply information
on this point.

TABLE F— PREVIOUS ATTENDANCE AT NEW YORK PUB-
LIC DAY SCHOOLS ONLY, AND AT OTHER SCHOOLS
OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING AND OF
WOMEN IN ALL TRADES, ATTENDING PUBLIC
EVENING SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY, 1910-1911*

ATTENDANCE AT

WOMEN IN
BOOKBINDING

WOMEN IN
ALL TRADES

Number

Per

Cent

Number

Per

Cent

New York public schools only .
Other schools

66
76

1,562
2,130

42
58

Total

142

IOO

3,692

IOO

aOf 144 women employed in bookbinding, 2 did not supply in-
formation on this point.

252

SUPPLEMENTARY STATISTICS

TABLE G.— YEARS OF ATTENDANCE IN PUBLIC DAY
SCHOOLS OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING
AND OF WOMEN IN ALLTRADES, ATTENDING PUBLIC
EVENING SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY, 1910-1911*

WOMEN IN

YEARS OF ATTENDANCE IN NEW

BOOKBINDING

ALL TRADES

YORK PUBLIC DAY SCHOOLS

Number

Per

Cent

Number

Per
Cent

Less than 6 years ....

6 years and less than 7 years .

137

7 years and less than 8 years .

319

8 years and less than 9 years .

578

9 years or over

294

Total

100

1,417

IOO

aThis table relates to women who attended New York City public
schools only. Of 66 women employed in bookbinding, who attended
New York public schools only, 8 did not supply information on this
point.

TABLE H.— PROGRESS IN PUBLIC DAY SCHOOLS OF
WOMEN EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDING AND OF
WOMEN IN ALL TRADES, ATTENDING PUBLIC
EVENING SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY, 1910-1911*

PROGRESS

WOMEN IN
BOOKBINDING

WOMEN IN
ALL TRADES

Number

Per
Cent

Number

Per
Cent

Rapid
Normal
Slow

12
40

21
70

206
369
824

15
26

Total

IOO

1,399

IOO

aThis table relates to women who attended New York City public
schools only. Of 66 women employed in bookbinding, who attended
New York City public schools only, 9 did not supply information on
this point. The rate of progress was measured by the number of
years required to reach the grade in which the pupil was enrolled at
the time of leaving school, allowing one year to each grade. For
example, a pupil who had attended school six years was rated as
"normal" if she had reached grade 6 B or 7 A, "slow" if she were in
a lower grade, and "rapid" if she were in a higher grade.

253

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

TABLE I.— HOURS AT WHICH WOMEN EMPLOYED IN
BOOKBINDING BEGIN WORKa

Hour of Beginning
Work

WOMEN BEGINNING WORK AT SPECIFIED
TIME IN

Edition and
Pamphlet Bind-
eries Employing
50 or more
Women

All Other
Binderies

All
Binderies

Num-
ber

Per
Cent

Num-
ber

Per

Cent

Num-
ber

Per
Cent

7 130 and before 8 a. m.
8 and before 8:30 a. m.
8:30 and before 9 a. m.
At 9 a. m. .

525
2,298

210

.65
'.532
303
35

8
75
15

690
3,830
513
35

14
75

Total . . .

3.033

100 2,035

100

5,068

IOO

a Of the 5,689 women employed in binderies supplying any infor-
mation regarding hours, 621 were in establishments which did not
state time of beginning work.

TABLE J— LENGTH OF NOON RECESS OF WOMEN EM-
PLOYED IN BOOKBINDING*

WOMEN HAVING SPECIFIED LENGTH OF
NOON RECESS IN

Edition and

Length of Noon Recess

Pampblet Bind-
eries Employing
50 or more

All Other
Binderies

All
Binderies

Women

Num-

Per

Num-

Per

Num-

Per

ber

Cent

ber

Cent

ber

Cent

30 minutes and less

than 45 .

2,243

1.533

3.776

45 and less than 60 .
60 minutes.

390

400

13
13

184
37i

574

771

1 1

Total . . .

3.033

IOO

2,088

IOO

5. 121

IOO

a Of the 5,689 women employed in binderies supplying any infor-
mation regarding hours, 568 were in establishments which did not
state length of noon recess.

254

SUPPLEMENTARY STATISTICS

TABLE K.— HOURS AT WHICH WOMEN EMPLOYED IN

BOOKBINDING LEAVE WORK, WHEN NOT

WORKING OVERTIME*

WOMEN LEAVING WORK AT SPECIFIED

HOURS IN

Edition and

Hour of Leaving Work

Pamphlet Bind-
eries Employing
50 or more

All Other
Binderies

All
Binderies

Women

Num-

Per

Num-

Per

Num-

Per

ber

Cent

ber

Cent

ber

Cent

Before 5 p. m. .

428

497

5 p. m. and before 5:30

p. m.

1,625

493

2,118

5 130 p. m. and before 6

p. m.

1, 080

1,164

5t7

2,244

6 p. m.

••

321

Total .

3.'33

100

2,047

100

5,180

100

a Of 5,689 women employed in binderies supplying any information
regarding hours, 509 were in establishments which did not state
the hour of leaving work.

255

APPENDIX C

SIXTY-HOUR RESTRICTION ON THE EM-
PLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN FACTORIES
IN NEW YORK STATE HELD
TO BE CONSTITUTIONAL*

People v. Howe, Court of Special Sessions, Oct. 31, 1906

PER CURIAM. — The defendant pleaded guilty to an informa-
tion charging him with violation of the provisions of section
77 of the Labor Law in that, during the week between the
24th day of September and the ist day of October, 1906, in
the County of New York, he unlawfully did employ, and
permit, and suffer to work in and in connection with a cer-
tain factory a certain female, one Mary Seeback, for the
period of more than sixty hours in said week. The defendant
further pleaded guilty to two other informations charging him
with a violation of the provisions of the same law in respect
of two other females.

Summary inquiry was had in each of these cases which
developed the fact that the factory referred to in the in-
formation was a steam laundry, and that each of the females
alleged to have been employed illegally was an adult.

Defendant thereupon, through counsel, moved in arrest
of judgment on the ground that section 77 of the Labor Law,
so far as it attempted to restrict the right to employ female
labor in a factory more than 60 hours in a week or the right
of females to labor more than 60 hours in any one week is

* New York State Department of Labor, Bulletin No. 31, De-
cember, 1906, p. 484.

256

SIXTY-HOUR LAW HELD CONSTITUTIONAL

unconstitutional. He cited Lochner r. State of New York,
198 U. S., 45.

This court has already declared that portion of section 77
of the Labor Law which prohibits employment in a factory of
any female after 9 o'clock at night and before 6 o'clock in
the morning to be unconstitutional, (People v. Williams,
N. Y. Law Journal, Aug. 10, 1906), and defendant seeks to
establish the unconstitutionality of the act in its further
restriction of the number of hours a week during which a
female may be employed.

The decision in the Williams case rested solely upon the
ground that that part of the law there invoked could not be
considered as purely a health regulation, and as such within
the police power of the state, and, as was decided in the Loch-
ner case, that it was an "unreasonable, unnecessary, and arbi-
trary intereference with the right of the individual to his
personal liberty or to enter into those contracts in relation
to labor which may seem to him appropriate or necessary
for the support of himself and his family."

There is a distinction between a law which prohibits the
employment of a woman for the slightest period of time
during certain hours and one which limits the number of
hours in a day or a week during which she may be employed
at factory work. A law which attempts to limit the number of
hours of labor of a woman employed in a factory, may well
be a health regulation and a proper legislative exercise of
the state's police power. There has been no adjudication of
this law by the appellate courts of this state. The courts of
last resort in four other states, however, have passed upon
this question of the hours of labor of women under statutes
and constitutional provisions quite similar to those under
consideration. In Massachusetts (Commonwealth v. Hamil-
ton Manufacturing Co., 120 Mass., 383); in Nebraska,
(Wenhan v. State, 91 Northwest Rep., 421); and in Washing-
ton, (State of Washington v. Buchanan, 29 Wash., Rep., 602),
the courts upheld the constitutionality of acts which limited

17 257

WOMEN IN THE BOOKBINDING TRADE

the number of hours during which women labor in factories
in those several states. In Illinois (Richie v. People, 155
Ills., 98), the Supreme Court of that state declared a similar
act to be unconstitutional. The weight of authority, therefore,
seems to be favorable to the constitutionality of a law which
limits the number of hours in a day or week that a woman
may be employed at work in a factory.

There is nothing in the Lochner case, reported, which
indicates the sex of the employe, who it was alleged was
required to work more than sixty hours a week. We know
that the person in that case was an employe in a bakery
or confectionery establishment. Defendant's counsel urges
that the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the
Lochner case is applicable here. The Lochner case, how-
ever, did not turn upon the sex of the person employed,
but upon the nature of the employment. The issue directly
in point here is that of sex. It is an issue which has not yet
been presented to the Supreme Court of the United States,
but as has been said, the weight of authority being for the
constitutionality of the act in question, this court is con-
strained to deny, and does deny, the motion in arrest of judg-
ment.

258

INDEX

ACCIDENT LIABILITY: increases
with overwork; its relation
to legal regulation of work-
ing day, 146

ADVERTISEMENTS FOR BINDERY
WOMEN: by month and
branch of trade, no; by
processes mentioned, 108

AGE OF WOMEN: as evidence of
length of service, 99; mini-
mum, at which learners are
employed, 78; minimum,
named by trade union, 196;
10 per cent under sixteen
years, 219

AKRON, OHIO: strike, 180

ALLIANCE EMPLOYMENT B URE AU :
co-operation with investiga-
tors, 7

AMERICAN FEDERATION or
LABOR, 174, 227

ANCIENT ART OF BOOKBINDING,

14-17

APPRENTICES AND LEARNERS:
ages, 77, 78, 196; edition
bindery best place for

— "~ learners, 202; employers'
attitude toward, 196, 205-
207, 210-217; inexperienced
worker employed in busy
seasons, 200; joining the
union, 186, 187; magazine
bindery work, 202; methods
in binderies, statements by
girls, 197-205; proportion
of, in relation to experienced

workers, 186, 196; special-
ists, 199; supervision by
local unions, 185-188, 202;
types of learners, 197; wages,
76-78, 186, 187, 202-204

ARBITRATION CONTRACT: be-
tween local unions and
Bookbinders' League, 182

ART BOOKBINDERS, 45, 46, 213

BLANKBOOK BINDERIES: num-
ber of women in 1910, 34;
number of women by season
of greatest activity, 104;
steadiest employment in,
107; work of, 23

BOOKBINDER: typical, 46

BOOKBINDERS' LEAGUE: em-
ployers' organization in New
York, agreement concerning
hours and wages, 179; arbi-
tration contract with local
unions, 182

BOOKBINDING: Ancient art of,
14-17

BOOKBINDING ESTABLISHMENTS:
conditions in the workroom,
147-150, 221, 222; diffi-
culties of investigating, 9;
dull seasons, number of
women laid off, in different
types of binderies, 107;
number in New York, by
nature of products, 1910, 26;
overtime hours, employers'
statements, 140; reorgani-

261

INDEX

zation, transfer of workers
and loss of positions, as the
result of introducing new
machines, 51-70, 112, 189;
seasons of greatest activity,
periods of maximum em-
ployment, 104, 105; typical
binderies, showing women's
work, 39-48; violations of
law restricting hours of
work, statistics, 141. See
also Employers

BOOKBINDING PROCESSES: ad-
vertisements, processes men-
tioned in, 1 08; changes, with
development of machinery,
39; details, 20-24, 38; hard
processes, statements of girls,
151-156. See also Hand
Work; Machine Work

BOOKBINDING TRADE: ancient
history, 14-17; branches of
the trade, 24-25; number of
binderies in each branch, in
New York, 26; capital
invested, value of products,
etc., 1900-1905, in New
York, 27; characteristics
are irregularity of work and
frequent change in condi-
tions, 48; employment bu-
reaus to assist girls in finding
positions, 126-128; employ-
ment registry of Local 43,
1 88 ; future of women's work
is problematical, 70, 231-
236; history of early days,
14-20; irregularity of em-
ployment, 101-132; out-
look for better conditions,
219-236; position of worker
and impossibility of her
modifying conditions of em-
ployment, 1 69-1 73 ; problems
of the specialist and of the
untrained worker, 207; re-
lation to other occupations
for women, 3, 4; restric-
tions on entrance to trade,

195, 196; second to cigar
making as trade for women,
3; specialization in the
bindery, result of use of
machines, 57, 61-70, 185,
1 86; standards, proper,
changes required to establish,
230-236; summary of con-
ditions, 219-236; transfer
of women and of women's
work, 51-70, 112, 189;
women's work in the binder-
ies, 38-71. See also Hours;
Statistics; Wages; Work of
Women in the Binderies

CAPITAL INVESTED: value of
products, etc., 1900-1905,
in New York, 27

CAREY, MATHEW, 19, 31

CHARTS: periods of work and
idleness of girl, 124; weekly
hours of girl, 145

CHILDREN: employment of, 196,
231

DEVINE, EDWARD T. : on employ-
ment bureaus, 126

DISPLACED WORKERS, 51-56,
112, 189

DRIFTERS: among working girls,
responsibility of the bindery,
200, 201

DULL SEASON : proportion of
women laid off, 107; loss
of time because of, 118

EARNINGS. See Wages

EDITION BINDERIES, 24, 26:
best place for learners, 202;
machine methods, work of
women, 39-42; number of
women in, 1910, 34; num-

262

INDEX

her by season of greatest
activity, 104; piece-work
system of payment, 74;
training of apprentices, 203,
204

EIGHT-HOUR DAY: demand by
trade unions in 1907, 177-
181

EMPLOYERS : attitude toward the
training of women book-
binders, 196, 205-207, 210-
217; complexity of his
trade relations, 13; con-
sideration for workers, dif-
ferences, 221; efforts to
remedy irregularity of em-
ployment, 129; power and
responsibility for welfare of
women, 233; prosecution
for violation of law and the
suspended sentence, 157,
158, 167; violations of law
restricting hours of work,
135, 136, 141

EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS : to serve
as clearing houses, 126-128

EMPLOYMENT REGISTRY: of trade
union, 188

EVENING SCHOOL CLASSES IN
BOOKBINDING: considered
not feasible by practical
bookbinders, 210-217

FACTORY LAWS. See Law Con-
cerning Labor

FAMILY STATUS : of women book-
binders, 87

FATHERS. See Parents

FATIGUE: caused by long periods
of work, 147-157, 225, 226

FEMALE IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY:
first federation of working
women's organizations, 19

FUTURE OF WOMEN'S WORK:
in binderies, is problem-
atical, 70, 231-236

GAINE, HUGH: binding establish-
ment in New York, 1752, 17

GOLD LEAF LAYERS, 175: ap-
prenticeship, 187 ; wages,
183, 187

GOLDMARK, JOSEPHINE: on fa-
tigue and efficiency, 155

GROLIER, 15

HAND WORK: demand for wo-
men is limited, 213; details,
44-48; evening school classes
considered not feasible by
practical bookbinders, 210-
217; folders are drifters in
the trade, 121. See also
Work of Women in the
Binderies

HEALTH OF WOMEN IN BINDER-
IES, 147-157, 164; legisla-
tion for protection, relation
to welfare of the race,
Supreme Court opinion, 165,
224-226

HISTORY OF BOOKBINDING, 14-20

HOME CONDITIONS OF WOMEN:
family status, 87; fathers,
wages of, 89; mothers, wage-
earning, 91-95; necessity for
contributions of bindery
girls, 89, 90; occupations of
fathers, 88; persons per
room, 97; rents paid, 96, 97

HOURS OF LABOR: accident
liability increases with over-
work, 146; actual working
time shown by reports, 134,
144; beginning and leaving
hours, 254, 255; chart show-
ing weekly hours of bindery

263

INDEX

girl, 145; daily hours of
work, statistics, 138; dan-
gers to girls on street late
at night, 142, 143; days
longer than twelve hours,
shown by reports, 144;
eight-hour day demand by
trade unions in 1907, 177-
181; eight-hour day of one-
fourth of women in shops,
219; fatigue caused by
long hours, I47~i57, 225,
226; health of workers, 147-
157, 164, 165, 224-226; ir-
regularity of employment,
101-132; law governing
hours of labor, 133-168;
night work, agreement be-
tween local unions and Book-
binders' League, 180; night
work, prohibition of , declared
unconstitutional by courts,
158-164; nine-hour day for
women since October, 1912,
*33> I34> noon recess,
length of, 254; Oregon case,
opinion of United States
Supreme Court, 165, 224,
225; position of the worker
and the impossibility of her
changing conditions, 169-
173; prolonged working day
not a universal practice, 222 ;
violations of the law, 135,
136, 141; weekly hours of
work, statistics, 139, 145;
week!}' limit, fifty-four hours,
134. See also Irregularity
of Employment; Overtime

HUGO, VICTOR, 17

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION: atti-
tude of International Bro-
therhood of Bookbinders
and Local 43, 215, 216; atti-
tude of practical bookbin-
ders toward training of
women binders, 196, 205-
207, 210-217; elements of

efficiency in manual occupa-
tion, 194; evening school
classes in bookbinding con-
sidered not feasible by
practical bookbinders, 210-
217; first step, to keep
children out of industry
until equal to its demands,
209; schooling as a neces-
sary foundation, 207-209,
25I~255> women's work in
bookbinding, problem of,
194, 195, 205-218

INSPECTORS: medical, 232; wo-
men, 233

INSTRUCTION. See Apprentices
and Learners; School Classes

International Bookbinder, 4, 178,
180, 216

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF BOOKBINDERS: aims and
efforts, 176; apprenticeship,
attitude toward, 185; atti-
tude toward industrial edu-
cation, 215, 216; eight-hour
day demand in 1907, 177-
181; funds and benefits,
176, 177; membership, 174;
organized in 1892, 174;
resolution concerning cut-
ting and folding machines,
49. See also Local 43

INVESTIGATION BY COMMITTEE
ON WOMEN'S WORK, RUS-
SELL SAGE FOUNDATION, 2;
co-operation of Alliance Em-
ployment Bureau, 7; field
workers, 11-12; foundation
report, 6; number of visits
made and records secured,
10; outline of, 6-n, 239-
248; record cards, 239, 245-
248; scope of, 6; time
covered, 1908-1911, 7, 8

IRREGULARITY or EMPLOYMENT,
101-132; census data of
1905 and its unreliability,

264

INDEX

103; characteristic of the
industry, 48; chart showing
periods of work and idleness
of bindery girl, 124; de-
moralizing and disorganiz-
ing effect of, 101, 102, 124;
difficulty of securing data,
101-103; dull season, loss
of time because of, 118, pro-
portion of women laid off
during, 107; employment
bureaus as clearing houses,
a possible solution, 126-128;
leaving of positions, reasons,
in, 112; maximum num-
ber of women employed, by
season of greatest activity,
104, 105; positions, means
of finding, -125, number held
in one year, 114, reasons
for leaving, in, 112; time
in one place, 113; time lost
between, 115; responsibil-
ity for, 129-132; season of
greatest activity, different
types of binderies, 105,
number of women employed,
104; solutions of the prob-
lem, discussion of possible,
124-132; specialization of
work in bindery, effect of,
57, 61-70, 185, 1 86; state-
ments of girls about wages
and irregular work, 119-123;
time in one position, 113,
loss of, between positions,
115, loss due to dull season,
1 1 8, loss due to failure to
repair machines, 120, loss
in year from all causes, 117.
See also Hours; Overtime

JOB BINDERIES: details of work,
24, 26; number of women,
by season of greatest activ-
ity, 104, in 1910, 34; time
or week methods of pay-
ment, 74

LABOR DEPARTMENT, STATE:
responsibility of, 233

LAW CONCERNING LABOR: chil-
dren, employment of, 196;
difficulty of enforcing the
law, 135-137; European
conditions, 131, 166; Fac-
tory and Workshops Act
in England, 131; Katie
Mead Case, court deci-
sions, 159-164; New York
state, 133, 134, 157, 174;
night work, prohibition con-
sidered unconstitutional,
court decisions, 158-164;
Oregon case, 165, 224-226;
overtime work without vio-
lating the law, 135; possi-
bilities of legislation, to
improve conditions, 132;
prosecution for violation of
the law, and the suspended
sentence, 157, 158, 167;
relation of legislation to the
welfare of the race, Oregon
case, 165, 224-226; sixty-
hour restriction in employ-
ment of women in factories
in New York state held to
be constitutional, 258; Su-
preme Court decision, 165,
224-226; violations of the
law, 135, 136, 141

LEARNERS. See Apprentices and
Learners

LEAVING OF POSITIONS: reasons.

LOCAL ALLIED PRINTING TRADES
COUNCILS: control use of
trade union label, 177

LOCAL 22: includes women gold
leaf layers, 175, 187

LOCAL 43, BINDERY WOMEN'S
UNION: apprenticeship con-
ditions, 185-188; arbitra-

265

INDEX

tion contract with Book-
binders' League, 182; atti-
tude toward industrial edu-
cation, 215, 216; construc-
tive business ability, 190,
19 1 ; eight-hour day demand
in 1907, 178-181; employ-
ment registry, 188; fees and
dues, 175; important factor
in improving woman's con-
dition, 193; joining, con-
ditions of, 187; membership,
175, 187; office and officers,
175; organized in 1895, 175;
purpose of organization, 169;
results accomplished, 193;
scope of its activities, 185;
transfer of workers, require-
ment of the union, 189;
wage scale, 183, 184; work
of, 176

LONDON SOCIETIES OF JOURNEY-
MEN BOOKBINDERS, 154

Loss OF TIME. See Time

MACHINE WORK: attitude of
employers toward purchas-
ing of machines, 57-62;
automatic machine, 40;
changes in machinery result
in reorganization, transfer
of workers, and loss of posi-
tions, 51-70, 112, 189; com-
bination machine, 50; devel-
opment of machine binding,
40, 49; displaced workers
and the machines, changes
in earning power, 50-56, 112,
189; drop-roll folding ma-
chine, 40; editionbindery,39~
42; effect on binding pro-
cesses, 39; folding machine,

40, 49; gathering machine,

41, 50; inserting machine,
49; lack of promptness in
repairing machines causes
operator loss of time, 120;
magazine bindery, 42-44;

pasting machine, 49; point
machine, 40; sewing ma-
chine demands greatest skill,
47, 50; specialization in the
bindery, result of use of
machines, 57, 61-70, 185,
186; trade union's attempt
to protect workers against
loss, 189; understanding of
hand work necessary, 46;
wages, changes in, due to
change in machines, 51-56,
112, 189; wire-stitching
machine, 50. See also Work
of Women in the Binderies

MAGAZINE BINDERIES: details,
24, 26; learners, 202; ma-
chine methods, work of
women, 42-44; number of
women in, 1910, 34

MARTINEAU, HARRIET, 18

MEAD, KATIE: decision of courts
concerning night work, 158-
164

MOTHERS. See Parents

NAMES OF BINDERY GIRLS: how
secured, 10

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MAN-
UFACTURERS: welfare work,
227

NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF
CHARITIES AND CORREC-
TION: platform of industrial
minimums, 228

NATIVITY: of bindery women,
35-37

NEW YORK CITY: early printing
and binding establishments,
17, 18; heart of the indus-
try about City Hall, 27

266

INDEX

New York World: advertise-
ments for bindery women,
108, no

NIGHT WORK: agreement be-
tween local unions and
Bookbinders' League, 180;
prohibition of, declared un-
constitutional by courts,
158-164

NINE-HOUR DAY: for women,
since October, 1912, 133, 134

NUMBER OF BOOKBINDERS. See

Statistics

OLIVER, THOMAS: on diseases
of occupation, 155

OREGON CASE: opinion of United
States Supreme Court, 165,
224-226

OUTLOOK: for better conditions,
219-236

OVERTIME: agreement between
local unions and Bookbind-
ers' League, 179, 180, 188;
girls' reports, 142-145; ille-
gal and not illegal overtime,
140; law of employment in
New York state, 133-168;
reports of 1887 and 1907,
conditions not bettered, i, 2;
three-fourths of the binder-
ies, overtime in, 220; with-
out violating the law, 135.
See also Irregularity of Em-
ployment

PAMPHLET BINDERIES: details,
24, 26; number of women in,
1910, 34; by season of
greatest activity, 104

PARENTS: of bindery women,
nativity, 36; occupations
of fathers, 88; wage-earn-
ing mothers, 91-95; wages
of fathers, 89

PAYMENT FOR WORK. See Wages

PAYNE, ROGER: his bill for
binding, 14, 15

PHILADELPHIA: and Mathew
Carey, 18, 19, 31

PIECE-WORK METHOD OF PAY-
MENT, 73, 74, 183

POSITIONS: means of finding,
125; number held in one
year, 114; reasons for leav-
ing, in, 112; time in one
place, 113; time lost be-
tween, 115

PRINTING PRESS: influence of,
on binding methods, 19

PROPORTION OF MEN AND WO-
MEN BINDERS: in United
States, 1850-1900, 29, 31,
65, 66, 69

PROSECUTIONS: for violation
of labor law, and the sus-
pended sentence, 157, 158,
167

PUBLIC OPINION: and the condi-
tions of women's work, 219,
236

PUBLISHERS: their responsibil-
ity for conditions in the
bookbinding trade, 129-132,
235

RECORD CARDS: used in investi-
gation, 239, 245-248

REQUIREMENTS OF WOMEN BIN-
DERS: deftness, accuracy,
and speed, 46-48

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE: of bin-
dery, and of all women in
the trades, 207-209, 249-253

SCHOOL CLASSES IN BOOKBIND-
ING: not considered feasible

267

INDEX

by practical bookbinders,
210-217

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE: as a
basis for establishing stand-
ard for women's work, 224

SEASONS: dull season, propor-
tion of women laid off, 107;
greatest activity, different
types of binderies, 105;
number of women employed,
104

SEEBACK, MARY: case of, 256

SPECIALIZATION: in the bindery,
57, 61-70, 185, 186

STANDARDS: in the bookbinding
trade, changes required to
establish proper, 230-236;
use of scientific evidence to
establish, 224

STATISTICS: advertisements for
bindery women, by month
and branch of trade, no, by
processes mentioned, 108;
age of women workers, 78,
99, 196, 219; binderies in
Manhattan, by nature of
products, 1910, 26, by season
of greatest activity, 105;
capital invested, value of
products, etc., 1900-1905,
in New York, 27; chart
showing periods of work and
idleness of girl, 124; chart
showing weekly hours of
bindery girl, 145; distribu-
tion of women binders in
different branches of the
trade, 1910, 34; distribu-
tion of women binders in
United States, 1900, by
cities, 30, 33; dull season,
proportion of women laid
off, 107; family status of
women bookbinders, 87;
hours of beginning and
leaving work, 254, 255;

268

hours of work, daily and
weekly, 138, 139; increase
in number of women binders,
1850-1900, in United States,
29> .31, 65, 66; leaving of
positions, reasons for, 112;
names of girls interviewed,
sources, 10; nativity of
bindery women, 36; noon
recess, length of, 254; num-
ber of persons engaged in
bookbinding in United States
by decades, 1850-1900, 29,
31; number of women
binders, in different branches
of the trade in New York,
1910, 34; number of women
binders in New York in
1900, 30, 33, in 1912, 32;
number of women binders,
by season of greatest activ-
ity, 104, 105; number of
women binders in United
States, 2; persons per room
in families of women binders,
97; positions, 111-115, 125;
proportion of men and
women binders in United
States, changes in, 29, 31,
65, 66, 69; school attend-
ance of bindery girls, and
of women in all trades, 207-
209, 249-253; time in one
position, 113; time lost,
115-118; violations in bin-
deries of law restricting hours
of work, 141; weekly earn-
ings of men and women
binders, and of women in all
manufacturing industries,
New York state, 1905, 79-
82; weekly earnings of
women during first week,
76-78; weekly wages of
women by years of employ-
ment in the trade, 75; yearly
income of women, approx-
imate, by ages, 85; years of
employment of women, 98,
99

INDEX

STEVENSON, ROBERT Louis, 16

STEWARDESS IN WORKROOM: ap-
pointed by trade union, 190

STRIKES: Akron, Ohio, 180;
New York, ordered against
firms refusing eight-hour
day demand, 179, averted,
1 80; non-union attempts,
172, 173

SUMMARY OF CONDITIONS: in
the bookbinding trade, 219-
236

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES: opinion on the
relation of legislation for
protection of women to the
welfare of the race, 165,
224, 226

TEACHING GIRLS THE TRADE,
194-218: attitude of em-
ployers toward the training
of women workers, 196, 205-
207, 210-217; attitude of
International Brotherhood
of Bookbinders and Local
43, 215, 216; evening school
classes, objections to, and
reasons, by practical book-
binders, 210-217; methods
in binderies, statements by
girls, 197-205. See also
Apprentices aitd Learners

TIME: in one position, 113; loss
between positions, 115; loss
due to dull season, 118;
loss due to failure to repair
machines, 120; loss in year
from all causes, 117

TRADE CLASSES. See School
Classes

TRADE UNION LABEL: use of,
177, 192

TRADE UNIONISM: American
Federation of Labor, 174;
apprenticeship conditions,
185-188; arbitration con-
tract between trade unions
and the B ookbinders '
League, 182; Bookbinders'
League, an employers' or-
ganization in New York,
179, 181, 182; cost of
struggle for eight-hour day,
1 80; eight-hour day demand
in 1907, 177-181; gives
workers broad view of trade
conditions, 234; influence
of the union, 190; Inter-
national Brotherhood of
Bookbinders, 49, 174-181,
185, 215, 216; Local Allied
Printing Trades Councils,
control use of trade union
label, 177; Local 22, in New
York, 175, 187; Local 43, in
New York, aims and work
of, 169, i74-i93> 2I5> 216;
opposition of some employ-
ers, 191; position of worker
and impossibility of her
modifying conditions of em-
ployment, 169-173; pur-
pose of local organization,
169; results of trade union-
ism, 192, 193; specializa-
tion dangers, provision
against, 185, 186; transfer
of workers, requirement of
union, 189; wage scales
adopted through efforts of
local union, 183, 184; work
of local unions, 176-193.
See also International Bro-
therhood of Bookbinders;
Local 43

TRAINING. See Apprentices and
Learners; School Classes

TRANSFER OF WORKERS, 51-70,
112, 189

269

INDEX

UNEMPLOYMENT. See Irregular-
ity of Employment

VIOLATION OF THE LAW: restrict-
ing hours of work, 135, 136,
141

WAGES OF WOMEN: agreement
between local union and
Bookbinders' League, 179,
1 80, 1 88; average wage, 220;
changes in earning power
resulting from changes in
machines, 51-56; compara-
tive weekly earnings of
men and women binders,
and of women in all manu-
facturing industries, New
York state, 1905, 79-82;
differences in different estab-
lishments, 82, 83; difficulty
of securing definite informa-
tion, 72, 73; drifters among
working girls, 200, 201;
fines and charges, 83, 84;
gold leaf layers, 183, 187;
irregularity of employment,
effect of, statements of girls,
119-123; learners' wages ,
76-78, 186, 187, 202-204;
low wages of women a prime
cause of poverty, 86; Mass-
achusetts minimum wage
board, 226; methods of
payment, 73, 74, 183; piece
work, 73, 74, 183; position
of the worker and the im-
possibility of her changing
conditions, 169-173; scale
arranged through efforts of
Local Union 43, 183, 184;
specialization in the bindery,
effect of, 61-70, 185, 186;
time work, 73; transfer of
workers, requirement of

trade union, 189; week
work, 73, 183; weekly earn-
ings, comparative, of men
and women binders, and of
women in all manufacturing
industries, New York state,
I905» 79~82; weekly earn-
ings during first week of
employment, 76-78; weekly
wages by years of employ-
ment in the trade, 75;
yearly income, 220, by ages,
85

WORK OF WOMEN IN THE BIN-
DERIES, 38-71; art binders,
45, 46; confined to the pre-
paring department, 38, 46;
displaced workers and the
changes in binding machin-
ery, 51-56, 112, 118; early
days of bookbinding, 16-19;
edition binderies, 39-42 ;
future of work is problemat-
ical, 70, 231-236; require-
ments are deftness, accuracy,
and speed, 46-48; speciali-
zation in the bindery and
its effect on time and wages,
61-70, 185, 1 86; transfer of
work and workers, 51-70,
112, 189; typical binderies,
39-48; women stand on
threshold of bindery trade,
38; years of employment,
98, 99. See also Appren-
tices and Learners; Hand
Work; Hours of Labor;
Irregularity; Machine Work;
Overtime; Wages

WORKROOMS OF BINDERIES:
physical conditions, 147,
149, 150; shop stewardess
appointed by trade union,
190

270

THE

SURVEY

A JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTIVE PHILANTHROPY

HP HE SURVEY is a weekly magazine for all those who
1 believe that progress in this country hinges on
social service: that legislation, city government, the
care of the unfortunate, the cure of the sick, the edu-
cation of children, the work of men and the homes of
women, must pass muster in their relation to the com-
mon welfare.

As Critic, THE SURVEY examines conditions of life
and labor, and points where they fail: how long hours,
low pay, insanitary housing, disease, intemperance, in-
discriminate charity, and lack of recreation, break down
character and efficiency.

As Student, THE SURVEY examines immigration, in-
dustry, congestion, unemployment, to furnish a solid
basis of fact for intelligent and permanent betterment.

As Program, THE SURVEY stands for Prevention: Pre-
vention of Poverty through wider opportunity and ade-
quate charity; Prevention of Disease through long-range
systems of sanitation, of hospitals and sanatoriums, of
good homes, pure food and water, a chance for play
out-of-doors; Prevention of Crime through fair laws,
juvenile courts, real reformatories, indeterminate sen-
tence, segregation, discipline and probation; Preven-
tion of Inefficiency, both industrial and civic, through
practice in democracy, restriction of child labor, fair
hours, fair wages, enough leisure for reading and recrea-
tion, compulsory school laws and schools that fit for
life and labor, for the earning of income and for rational
spending.

PAUL U. KELLOGG EDI,TOR

EDWARD T. DEVINE

JANE ADDAMS h " " ASSOCIATE EDITORS

GRAHAM TAYLOR

103 E£Iw!^TEEI $2 . 22 YEARLY

RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION PUBLICATION

SALESWOMEN IN
MERCANTILE STORES

ELIZABETH BEARDSLEY BUTLER

AUTHOR OF " WOMEN AND THE TRADES "

\>f 1SS BUTLER has been called one of the two most
*** competent American investigators of women in
industry. In this work she takes up one specific group
of women workers — one of the largest groups — and
follows them through the year's work in a typical city of
medium size — Baltimore. The retail shop girls of Balti-
more represent accurately the great majority of women
engaged in this occupation.

The careful statement of hours and wages, of the
varying practice in regard to enforced vacations, of the
prospects of a " raise " and of future advancement, are
most convincing. Not so much in the chapter headings
as in the titles over parts of chapters does the reader learn
the real inwardness of shopgirl life. Here we find sections
under such significant headings as Vacations and Arbitrary
Discharge, Wages and the Cost of Living, Night Work
and Overtime, Extra Pay, Fines.

Here are the facts — a clear, unbiased statement of
things as they are that might well serve as a model for
the reports of other investigators.

12mo. Illus. 236 Pages. POSTPAID, I.^§

SURVEY ASSOCIATES, INC.

FORMERLY CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE

PUBLISHERS FOR THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION

105 EAST 22D STREET, NEW YORK

RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT

TO— ^ 202 Main Library

LOAN PERIOD 1
HOME USE

ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS

1 -month loans may be renewed by calling 642-3405

6-month loans may be recharged by bringing books to Circulation Desk

Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date

DUE AS STAMPED BELOW

MAI ^ U 19&!

mm. MAY 02 BK

HI! 1 1Qfl£

"UL 1 KjQQ

ReCHV^J

ADD 1 n 1OflC

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
FORM NO. DD6, 60m, 12/80 BERKELEY CA 94720

®s

GENERAL LIBRARY -U.C. BERKELEY

u /

259923

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Texts

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Women in the bookbinding trade"

See other formats